Six years after her family of ten children had assembled in her home for a party, Sheila Malone has to endure another reunion weekend with all but two of her children. The occasion this time is a wedding and she is even less happy about this celebration than she had been for the party for her fourth eldest daughter. Sheila tries to manipulate her children just as she has always done but this time, instead of dividing and controlling them, she is defeated and they grow close. They ignore their mammy's sulky moods so that their youngest sister can have a happy day. Shortly before the family...

It is over ten years since the manipulative Sheila Malone tolerated having all her family home in Dublin to celebrate the twenty-first birthday of her second youngest daughter. Yet a further ten years will elapse before they will be together again for another family occasion. During those years three more of her ten children marry and two of her daughters divorce their husbands.

As Sheila's children mature, their lives and relationships evolve and flourish, and they cease to be afraid of their mother. On occasion, they even manipulate her. In her usual self-centred and selfish way,...