Stephen Seary, a charismatic successful stage designer returns to Australia to visit his dying mother, but the visit becomes more complicated than initially anticipated. What was to be a quick trip descends into a frustrating challenge as family responsibilities, a difficult relationship with his curmudgeonly father, unresolved conflicts with long-forgotten antagonists, romantic interludes, and the presence of an annoying sister. All these challenges make his return to Europe and the opera he has contracted to design increasingly problematic.