Act 1 Summary

Three exhausted adults crowd around a crib after a long watch. Kate Keller, a young woman of gentility, her husband, Captain Arthur Keller, a fit gentleman in his forties, and an older doctor converse. The doctor tells Kate that the girl child will live. He tells the parent that they're fortunate because he didn't think the child would survive. The captain is not surprised at all since she is of his blood.

The doctor tells Katie Keller to rest, followed by that order from her husband. He has been through two other children but this is Katie's first. After a moment of levity with the doctor, the doctor reassures the parents that their child will get well from her "acute congestion of the stomach and brain." Mr. Keller sees the doctor to his buggy and Mrs. Keller talks to her baby. It is...