Linda Burnell dreams, listless and distant, while downstairs her mother sets in order the family's new home in the New Zealand countryside. Her vigorous and exhausting husband, Stanley, is at the office, but will return with eager and admiring eyes. Her children prepare lunch on a concrete step and her sister sings love songs to an imaginary young man. This is The Aloe, which Katherine Mansfield wrote to crystallise the memories of her childhood. It was reworked to become her acclaimed Prelude.