In the opening scene, Gerry Stratton, a self-made businessman, has organised a small family dinner with his sons Glyn and Adam at his favourite restaurant, to celebrate his wife Laura's fifty-fourth birthday. Glyn, who has been brought up to take over the family business, is with his long-suffering wife Stephanie. Their marriage seems to be on firmer ground than it once was. Adam, Glyn's younger brother, who is the apple of his mother's eye and a sensitive boy, has brought along his new girlfriend, Maureen, an outrageous hairdresser and they are both eager to impress.The title "Time of My Life" is a reference to the way Ayckbourn manipulates time in the play. The ensuing scenes between Glyn and Stephanie take place after the dinner party and go forward in time, whereas the scenes between Adam and Maureen take place before the dinner party and go backward in time.
The dinner party seems to depict a happy domestic scene but as the play progresses we are gradually made aware of the family skeletons ...... As in all of Ayckbourn's plays, the comedy has an underlying seriousness. The Times described the play as " .... funny, very funny, and not at all funny: quintessentially Ayckbourn".