Summary

The play opens at the Coverly family estate of Sidley Park in Derbyshire, England in April, 1809. Thomasina Coverly, at the age of thirteen, is studying with her tutor, Septimus Hodge, in a room facing the garden. Thomasina is attempting to discover a proof of Fermat’s last theorem, an algebraic enigma that has puzzled mathematicians for hundreds of years. Septimus is attempting to read “The Couch of Eros,” a poem written by Ezra Chater, a guest currently residing in the manor house. Thomasina pauses in her studies to ask Septimus the meaning of the phrase “carnal embrace.” Septimus attempts to fool Thomasina into thinking the phrase describes someone hugging some kind of meat, but Thomasina pursues the subject saying she overheard the house staff saying Mrs. Chater was discovered in a “carnal embrace” with someone in the gazebo. Septimus questions Thomasina further and then attempts...