Both of these stories present events in the daily life of the Burnells, a New Zealand family that resembles the household in which Mansfield was raised. "Prelude" concerns the family's move from town to country. "At the Bay," which takes place some time after "Prelude," concerns the passing of one day spent at the family's vacation bungalow by the sea. In both stories, the reader observes the complexity of the interrelationships which keep the family together yet apart. While the members of the family are closely joined by emotional bonds, each character remains a separate individual, never fully relating to anyone else, and isolated in the privacy of his or her own thoughts and responses.