p Aston Robert Shaw , a quiet, reserved man, lives alone in a top-floor cluttered room of a small abandoned house in a poor London district He befriends and takes in Mac Davies Donald Pleasence , an old derelict who has been fired from a menial job in a café In time Aston offers him a job as caretaker of the house Aston 三九 s brother, Mick Alan Bates - a taunting, quasi-sadist - harasses the derelict when his brother is away, countermanding his orders Eventually Aston, himself irritated by the cantankerous old man, puts him out p