Violet is a confused, elderly woman in a nursing home who has been told by the excited staff she will soon be receiving a congratulatory telegram from the Queen in honour of her one hundredth birthday. This, however, perplexes Violet as she wanders far back in her memory to an age where telegrams brought news of death on a battlefield. Violet ruminates about a long-lost love to her only real friend, a gay male nurse at the home named Francis, who ultimately dies of AIDS.