The scene is set at night on the back porch of a house in Chicago. Catherine sits in a chair with her eyes closed. Her father, Robert, a "rumpled academic" stands behind her.
Robert startles the sleeping Catherine; he asks her why she's not in bed. Catherine tells her father she is waiting up for his former student and protégé, Harold "Hal" Dobbs, who is upstairs examining some papers in Robert's study. Robert tells her Hal can let himself out and reminds her it is after midnight, so it is her birthday. Robert hands her a bottle of champagne, but forgets the glasses. She drinks alone, from the bottle, as they argue about whether or not she's inherited his insanity. Catherine is nearly the same age as her father had been when.....
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