Bri, a schoolteacher and his wife Sheila have a 10-year old spastic child named Josephine, who is completely helpless and utterly dependent. Bri hides behind irony and sarcasm. Sheila believes the child is her penance for a promiscuous past and soldiers on devotedly with their little "Joe Egg." Well-meaning family and friends offer sundry solutions, everything from adoption to euthanasia but ultimately Bri finds he cannot continue and leaves Sheila and Joe behind.