The Homecoming Summary

In a house in North London, Lenny is reading on the sofa when his elderly father Max enters the room. They bicker. Max grumbles about Lenny’s late mother, Jessie, though he admits she was a fine enough woman. He reminisces about his youth and about the fearsome reputation he and his late friend MacGregor once had. Lenny accuses his father of “getting demented.”

Max’s brother Sam returns from work dressed in his chauffeur’s uniform. Sam greets Lenny but not Max, who bristles at the affront. Sam cryptically reminisces about how he used to love chauffeuring Jessie around and about the perhaps scandalous activity he would witness his passengers get up to in the backseat, but he doesn’t elaborate when Max presses him for details. Joey, Max’s youngest son, returns home from the gym, where he trains as a boxer when he’s not at his demolition job. Max insults Sam for not having a physically demanding job.

That evening, after everyone is asleep, Max’s eldest son Teddy—a professor of philosophy at an American university—arrives, accompanied by his wife, Ruth. The couple has been touring Europe on vacation. Though Teddy has been effectively estranged from his family for the past six years, he thinks it’s finally time to pay them a visit—and finally introduce them to Ruth—for a few days before he and Ruth return home to their three sons.

Though Teddy is happy to be home, but Ruth remains distant and aloof. Teddy suggests they head upstairs to his childhood bedroom to go to sleep, but Ruth claims to need some air and insists on taking a walk. She leaves. In her absence, Lenny appears and greets Teddy. Neither brother seems particularly pleased to see the other, and Lenny is subtly aggressive toward Teddy. Eventually Teddy goes upstairs to sleep, leaving Lenny alone in the main room.

Ruth returns from her walk and introduces herself to Lenny. He offers her a glass of water, which she accepts. Lenny tells a crude story about wanting to kill a sex worker who approached him at the docks one night, claiming the woman was diseased. When Ruth questions Lenny about how he could have known the woman was ill, Lenny bristles and demands that Ruth hand over her glass of water even though she’s not finished with it. Ruth refuses—and then boldly makes a pass at him in an aggressive show of dominance. Then, she leaves Lenny behind to join Teddy upstairs.

The following morning, Ruth and Teddy come downstairs wearing dressing gowns. Max accuses Teddy of bringing a “whore” into the house, disbelieving (or perhaps simply ignoring) Teddy’s insistence that Ruth is his wife, not a sex worker. Lenny enters the room wearing a dressing gown. Max hits Joey in the stomach. When Sam tries to intervene, Max strikes him with his cane. After a pause, Max asks Ruth if she is a mother. When she confirms that she is, his attitude toward her and Teddy softens. Max asks Teddy if he’d like a “cuddle” with his father, and Teddy moves toward his father for a hug.

That afternoon, Max, Teddy, Lenny, and Sam smoke cigars in the main room. Ruth enters with coffee for the men. Max asks Sam when he plans to leave for work that day. He accuses Sam of intentionally trying to be late in order to embarrass Max. Sam tries to defend himself, and the two bicker back and forth. When Sam remarks that “MacGregor was a driver,” Max loses his temper, pointing his cane at Sam. Sam leaves, shaking Ruth’s hand on his way out.

Max turns to Teddy and says it was great to have him home. Teddy talks about how happy he and Ruth are. He mentions that the couple’s children are all boys, eliciting more praise from Max. Lenny aggressively tries to engage Teddy in a philosophical debate, but Ruth derails it when she moves her leg suggestively to make a point about meaning and misinterpretation.

Joey, Lenny, and Max leave for the gym. Teddy sits down next to Ruth and takes her hand. He floats the idea of leaving early, suggesting that he wants to return to their home, where it’s “clean.” Ruth questions Teddy’s reasoning, accusing him of disliking his family.

Teddy goes upstairs to pack. Lenny comes home and makes idle small talk with Ruth, who suggestively describes her former life as a model. Teddy comes back downstairs with the suitcases. Lenny puts a jazz record on and asks Ruth to dance with him before she leaves. Ruth agrees, and they begin to dance suggestively. Joey and Max return home—just as Lenny and Ruth begin to kiss. Smiling, Joey approaches the dancing couple and leads Ruth to the couch. Joey lays Ruth down on the couch and begins to kiss her. Teddy watches passively. Lenny approaches Ruth and begins to caress her hair. When he nudges Ruth with his foot, she abruptly pushes him away and demands he fetch her something to eat and drink. She asks Teddy if his family has read his scholarly works. Teddy says no—then he goes off on a long, frustrated tangent about his family’s ignorance and lack of curiosity.

Later that night, Sam returns to the house. He tells Teddy how good it was to see him and suggests he stay a few more weeks. Lenny becomes irate when Teddy admits that he intentionally ate a cheese-roll Lenny had prepared for himself.

Joey enters the room, and Lenny asks him how he “got on” with Ruth, whom Joey was just getting intimate with upstairs. Joey admits that he and Ruth didn’t go all the way. Lenny insists that Ruth is to blame since Joey is very popular with the ladies.

Max enters the room, and Lenny describes what a “tease” Ruth was with Joey. Max is outraged at Ruth for mistreating his youngest son. After a pause, though, he wonders whether it might be nice for Ruth to live with them. The men discuss keeping Ruth around to serve them sexually, though they worry about having another mouth to feed. Lenny, a pimp, works out a plan to set up Ruth in one of the flats he keeps for his sex workers. Ruth comes downstairs. Teddy relates the plan to her, and Ruth accepts—on the condition that the men fix up a flat to her liking and sign a contract.

Suddenly, Sam steps forward and makes the shocking claim that MacGregor and Jessie had sex in the back of his cab—then he collapses. The men confirm that Sam is still alive, though he remains motionless for the remainder of the play. Teddy bids his father and brothers goodbye. Ruth tells him to keep in touch. Teddy leaves for the airport.

Max, Joey, and Lenny stand around Ruth, who remains seated in a chair. Max cries out that he’s not too old to be with Ruth, but Ruth doesn’t deign to respond. Joey lays his head in Ruth’s lap as Lenny looks on from the periphery.