Richard feels embarrassed about his mother his teenage friends tease him, calling her an old lady because their parents are much younger.
In England its still expected that children are born when their parents are relatively young, not only for biological reasons but also because of societal attitudes.
Richard is only seventeen, while his mother Margaret is already sixtyfive. All his peers laugh at him, saying his mum looks like a granny. Even at school, when other students young, attractive parents pick them up, it is Margarets elderly mother who arrives on Richards behalf, shuffling along on a cane. He is mortified and uncomfortable.
Richard has left home several times, disappearing for weeks at a stretch. Gwen constantly begs him to pull himself together and stop behaving like this. He, however, believes she has deeply hurt and insulted him.
One day he returns to the flat to find Margaret missing. The neighbour tells him that Gwen suffered a heart attack and is now in hospital, insisting its all his fault. She swears she never meant any harm.
On a chilly morning, a baby wrapped in a blanket is discovered in a bin. Margaret quickly adopts the child, raising him as her own son. While Richards family let the infant die in the rubbish, Gwen devotes her entire life to the boy, which explains why she appears so aged now that Richard is already a teenager.
Overcome with shame for his earlier behaviour, the son rushes to the hospital, weeps, drops to his knees, kisses Gwens hands and begs for forgiveness. She readily grants it, for he is, after all, her son.
