The very different but equally pathetic lives of these ladies, set against the background of a mental illness which few of us encounter, yields a rich vein of black humour which is tapped mercilessly by Sue Townsend, but slowly the underlying reasons for their fear of exposure begin to emerge, and, with the help of a well meaning trainee social worker, it soon becomes clear that their self-appointed and self righteous leader has been unintentionally undermining their hopes of recovery, tying them to her to fuel her own sense of importance and ego.