Play One, Masters of the Trade Summary

The play and the cycle open with a prologue: a narrator setting the scene in the wilds of Kentucky in 1775.

Earl Tod, a Scottish trader, appears, sits by his fire and starts to doze. He looks up suddenly when he hears a noise offstage. As he reaches carefully for his rifle, he calls out in Cherokee. When there's no response he tries English, threatening whoever is in the woods with death if he doesn't come out immediately.

Michael Rowen, an Irish trader, steps out of the forest with his hands in the air. He asks to sit by the fire and have a bite to eat, since he's been on the run "after all that terrible trouble at Zion." Rowen explains that a wild animal spooked his horse, and while he was getting...