Part 1, Act 1 Summary

The story of this innovative play is built around the love of three very different men for the same woman. Over the course of several years, affections shift, relationships change, a child is born and grows to manhood, and life is experienced as a "strange interlude" in the larger, infinite experience of the universe. Of particular interest is the way the story is told, with the characters speaking their thoughts throughout. This direct revelation of the subtext or emotions and motivations behind what the characters say and do, was a novelty at the time the play was written and has since become a popularly used device.

Act 1 takes place in Leeds' study. Marsden enters, looks around, and speaks his thoughts, recalling his first visit, the early death of his father, how difficult it was for him to write in Europe, and...