Aston Robert Shaw, a quiet, reserved man, lives alone in a topfloor cluttered room of a small abandoned house in a poor London district He befriends and takes in Mac Davies Donald Pleasence, an old derelict who has been fired from a menial job in a café In time Aston offers him a job as caretaker of the house Aston#39;s brother, Mick Alan Bates a taunting, quasisadist harasses the derelict when his brother is away, countermanding his orders Eventually Aston, himself irritated by the cantankerous old man, puts him out
