Act 1, Scene 3 Summary

Sara serves appetizers as Tom and Tess argue politely with Nick, the man that Tess said earlier she couldn't stand. -The discuss the social and economic repercussions of the fall of the Soviet Union, which is taking place that very night. Nick takes the whole discussion very casually, even when Merv comes downstairs in a borrowed shirt and joins the argument, siding with Tess and Tom, and whom Sara clearly dislikes.

Merv and Tess start talking about the Concert of Europe, a plan that emerged in the early 1800's to unite large portions of Europe. Sara and Nick start talking about the economic repercussions of the plan. Merv insists on talking about the social consequences, which he insists included considerable anti-Semitism, and that continues in Europe and England to the present day. He tries to get Sara to see the point...