Separate Tables

Managed by the efficient Pat Cooper, the Beauregard Hotel on the English coast in Bournemouth is a stuffy, second-rate establishment. Only a handful of mostly resident guests are currently staying at the hotel. They include: retired and decorated Major Angus Pollock; elderly Maud Railton-Bell, who needs to control everything, especially her mousy spinster daughter Sibyl Railton-Bell, who has a quiet bond with and crush on the Major; Lady Gladys Matheson, who follows whatever Mrs. Railton-Bell wants purely out of camaraderie; straightforward, slightly gruff Miss Meacham; staid schoolteacher Mr. Fowler; students Charles and Jean, a young unmarried couple who are the primary focus of Mrs. Railton-Bell’s ire for probably doing it out of wedlock; and writer John Malcolm, a brash American who hides his issues behind his excessive drinking and who is in a secret liaison with Pat and wants to marry her. Their relationship is threatened by the unexpected arrival of Ann Shankland, who has a turbulent, passionate history with John. Ann’s arrival is not by accident; she says she wants to help John before she remarries, but she might have other, more self-motivated reasons. The focus of the entire group changes when Mrs. Railton-Bell learns of a secret the Major is hiding. As Mrs. Railton-Bell tries to control the situation with the Major to her satisfaction, which includes bending the truth to suit her own needs, the others out of their own situations, especially Sibyl, might eventually come to their own conclusions on how best to deal with the Major’s issue with respect to his stay at the hotel.