There are few mothers in British literature quite so self-centered and unfeeling towards one of their children as Polly Whittacker's mother Ivy. Elizabeth Bennet's mother in Pride & Prejudice comes to mind, but at least she was overflowing with love for her 'bookish' daughter when she suddenly realized that Elizabeth was marrying into wealth.
Polly's mother is just purely and simply concerned with no one else's welfare but her own. In addition, she is one of those people who blows either hot or cold on people. One minute they are her favorite person in the whole world, and then, when they do something that annoys or threatens her, they turn into her most detested enemy.
This is the kind of fate that first befalls Polly's father Reg, then the lodger David Bragge, and then Polly herself. And yet, as it turns out, life without Ivy is not really a negative thing after all.