36 Views begins both in a dream and at Darius Wheeler's - a notorious art dealer's - apartment. He tells the story of his Indiana Jones-like adventures tracking down art in a no-man's-land in Southeast Asia in one spotlight while an 11th-century Japanese lady removes layers of her clothing in another. The juxtaposition of modern and ancient, traditional and avant-garde, real and imaginary set, the playwright jumps into the height of Darius' party. He meets Setsuko Hearn, an up-and-coming Asian studies professor to whom he can't help but be drawn, even though she finds him rather base and loathsome.