The action of this drama takes place amid a family during a spell of freezing weather. The father, Gregory, labours under the delusion he is a Ôgreat comedianÕ and that his desperately unfunny routine has the Ôtrue paranoid despairÕ of the twentieth century. To the chagrin of his careworn wife, Mabel, he pins his future on that vain hope; and she also fails to realistically connect to her present situation, harking back constantly to the barren bleak relationship she formerly had with a sinister scientist called Robert Garstin. And Gregory and MabelÕs daughters, too, have problems: Daphne is involved with a brash young American salesman, Bill, while Alice has a mysterious fiance, Derek, who permanently wears a bowler hat and insists on eating only icecream. When Derek is invited to tea, both parents are alarmed to find out he is a snowman. But despite his dismal, short-lived prospects, Derek burns with a hard gem-like flame and terrifies and entertains until the temperature rises...