Circling the inhabitants of a boarding house during World War Two, 'There is an air of debauch about tossed bed-clothes, stale air, cold hot-water bottles and last night’s cast-off clothing, from which even the primmest of maiden ladies cannot hope to escape. Sleep is gross, a form of abandonment, and it is impossible for anyone to awake and observe its sordid consequences save with a faint sense of recent dissipation, of minute personal disquiet and remorse.'
