Act I

The action takes place in the kitchen and parlor of the house where Doaker Charles, his niece, Berniece, and her eleven-year old daughter, Maretha, live. Boy Willie, Berniece's brother, has just arrived from down South with his friend Lymon. The two men have stolen a truck and have hauled a load of watermelons in it. They plan to sell the melons and split the profits evenly. Lymon is in trouble with the sheriff back home and announces that he plans to stay in Pittsburgh, but Boy Willie insists that he will return South.

Boy Willie greets his uncle Doaker exuberantly, and although it is only five o'clock in the morning, he soon raises the whole household from sleep. Soon the audience learns that Boy Willie's motives for driving to Pittsburgh are by no means innocent. He plans to take the family heirloom, an antique piano, from...