Pansy is a woman tormented by anger and depression, hypersensitive to the slightest possible offence and ever ready to fly off the handle. She criticises her husband and their adult son so relentlessly that neither bothers to argue with her. She picks fights with strangers and sales clerks and enumerates the world's countless flaws to anyone who will listen, especially her cheerful sister Chantal, who, despite their clashing temperaments, might be the only person still capable of sympathising with her.