'The Jolly Fiddler' is a hotel managed, on behalf of a big company, by Alan Pryor, whose wife Sheila does a good deal of work about the place. Alan is an amiable, conscientious man, but one beset by problems, chief of which is Albert's future. Albert is the waiter, old and not, perhaps, as swift as he used to be, but a craftsman, devoted to his job, not servile but proud to serve. He is also a rogue, very much capable of looking after himself in the normal run of events. But now things are not normal: the company wants him pensioned off; Alan wants to keep him on, but there is little he can do about if Albert has to take a hand himself..