A chip in the sugar tells the story of Graham - a man in his mid-forties who lives with his widowed mother. One day she meets an old flame from many years ago - Frank Turnbull - and a new romance begins. Graham is increasingly disturbed when Frank, whose right-wing views conflict with his liberalism, proposes to his mother.

A bed among the lentils is about Susan - an alcoholic Vicar's wife who unwittingly begins an affair with an Indian grocer in Leeds. She discovers something about herself and God in the process of her recovery.