A greatly admired and famour poet of Edwardian days, Lord Bernard Pleymell, lives on his memories, and sustains his self-esteem in his old age by welcoming disciples and admirers, especially young ones, entertaining them to tea and drinking in their adulation. One such party, after a rather unpromising start, becomes a great success, and the four young students arrange a second meeting. But after they have gone Bernard realizes sadly that, for all his enjoyment of their compnay, their admiration does not perhaps amount to so very much to an old man listening to the clock ticking away his remaining hours.