Ada Gibson is a widow living in a Pennsylvania farmhouse with dogs, cats and visitors for company. Sometimes the visitors consist of her son and his wife and four lively children; at other times the visitors are less congenial -- Mrs. Neff, a feminist who wants Ada to employ her two young sons. The death of a pet cat leads Ada to reflect that "for each of us there is a predator and the game of life is nothing more than an attempt to postpone the day when predator and prey meet". The last episode, which takes place in a doctor's ofice, she feels close to the inevitable meeting. Her quiet story is that of a life reflecting upon itself and tirelessly rearranging the materials that memory and observation provide. The vitality of Ada's spirit, whether she is surviving the misadventures of another week of prayer or finding solace in the sunset of yet another Christmas, shines through to console us all.

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