It’s two in the morning, and a married couple, Martha (age 52) and George (age 46), loudly enter the living room of their home located on the campus of a small college in New England. They have just come from a faculty party thrown by Martha’s father. They begin insulting and scolding each other. Martha quotes a line from a Bette Davis movie: “What a dump!” (3), and then describes the film, irked when George doesn’t know the title.

Martha complains that George didn’t socialize at the party, and George exclaims, “Do you want me to go around all night braying at everybody, the way you do?” (7). This hurts Martha’s feelings, and George walks the comment back. Martha tells George to make her a drink. He agrees that a nightcap is in order, and Martha reminds him that they have invited a young couple over. George is baffled, and Martha describes the young, attractive professor, new to the math department, and his wife, who she calls, “a mousey little type” (10).

George wonders why they have invited the couple over so late, and Martha replies, “Daddy said we should be nice to them” (10). George grumbles that Martha is constantly surprising him, and Martha mocks him.