Act 1, Scene 1 Summary

Joe Turner's Come and Gone is a two-act play about the events and tensions among the owners and boarders in Bertha and Seth Holly's rooming house in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1911.

It is a steamy August Saturday when the play opens. Bertha Holly is preparing breakfast in the kitchen of the boardinghouse she owns with her husband, Seth. Seth Holly, an "ornery man in his fifties," looks out the kitchen window; he is watching one of their boarders, Bynum Walker, a conjure man, who is someone who invokes spirits and potions with the intent of bringing about results. Seth cannot understand Bynum's mysterious ways and is startled to see Bynum in another ritual, which involves killing a pigeon and burying it as a prayer to the gods to bless the Holly house.

When Bynum finishes his ritual, he joins Bertha and Seth...