The small downstairs apartment is a dream come true for Rata ( Vanessa Rare ), and Ruby ( Yvonne Lawley ) encourages her agent to rent it to the suitable young businesswomen she sees from her window.

With a helpful and friendly tenant to keep an eye on her, Ruby is sure she can ignore plans to have her moved to the Sunset Villas retirement home.

But nothing is as it seems.

Far from being a businesswoman, Rata is a mistress of disguise – practiced in welfare fraud, a would-be rock singer and mother of seven-year-old Willie ( Lee Mete-Kingi).

Neither is Ruby the kindly child-minder Rata anticipated.

Willie wants nothing to do with the “Old witch” upstairs.

And Buckle ( Simon Barnett ), the agent who is really Ruby’s nephew in disguise, soon finds both woman more than a match for him.

From the ensuing clash of personalities and generations, emerges a story told with humour, warmth and charm – of two determined and manipulative women who have more in common than they realize…

“ Preston and her team have woven a special kind of Kiwi magic in this one – I’d crawl across broken glass to see it again – and again”
- Peter Calder, NZ Herald

“Preston and her team have woven a special kind of Kiwi magic in this one – I’d crawl over broken glass to see it again – and again”
- Peter Calder NZ Herald