This is the story of an old cleaning woman, known as Weekly, or 'The Newspaper'. Unknown to the residents of Claremont Street, for whom she works, Weekly dreams of escape - escape from the parasitic demands of both her past and her present. Weekly is one of Elizabeth Jolly's major creations; one of the wiry survivors whose vulnerability is Jolley's special task of illumination. This character is perhaps the author's outstanding achievement to date, and is created with humour, sharpness, not a little sympathy, and finally, a sort of desperate calm.