Stanley, who has the aged and disheveled look of a pensioner living on little, attends lovingly to a large cabbage, the only thing growing in his brick-walled back yard. His wife, meanwhile, is in the kitchen with her cleaver, dispatching red meat and trussed chickens with thunderous whacks. One evening, her eyes settle on a recipe for beef with cabbage, and she throws down the gauntlet. Is it good-bye to the cabbage? Will Stanley have to part with the vegetable of his dreams?