The story is presented through the eyes of Ben Telfair, a 32 year old third generation stonemason who uses a series of monologues to provide an extended and frequently convoluted commentary on the events taking place on stage and off. The Telfairs seem a solid, hard-working and rather successful middle-class black family living in Louisville, Kentucky in the early 1970s. Oddly enough, except for one or two passing references to social issues, the issue of race is hardly relevant to the play's plot.