Ballet provides an overview of Kopit's farce in this essay, explicating the plot and offering a brief history of the play's creation.

The setting is a lavish suite in a Caribbean hotel, where Madame Rosepettle, her son Jonathan, and her dead husband (in a coffin) as well as their very large, carnivorous plants and assorted treasure, have ensconced themselves. Entering their restricted quarters is Commodore Roseabove, who attempts to court Madame Rosepettle, followed by Rosalie, who seduces and tries to free the imprisoned Jonathan from his mother. In addition to this collection of characters, there are a platoon of bellboys as well as Rosalinda, the rare (and talking) goldfish, which apparently eats cats voraciously. This peculiar, not to say zany, ménage has intimations of something more, and in the 1960's it seemed very avant-garde to some scholars and no doubt to much of its Broadway...