Act 1, Scene 1 Summary

Miss Lulu Bett is a three-act play about a few weeks in the life of Lulu Bett. The protagonist is a woman of thirty-five who finds independence and a life of her own after enduring the charitable keep of her married sister Ina and Ina's husband Dwight Deacon in the early years of the 20th century in America.

The play opens in the plain-looking dining room of the Deacon home. Dwight has just arrived home and greets his young daughter Monona. Ina greets her husband and announces that dinner is ready even though Lulu has not called the family to the table. Lulu does all the cooking for the family. Ina is embarrassed about Lulu's homely appearance and hesitates to have guests. Lulu and Ina's mother, Mrs. Bett, also lives in the Deacon household. She is cantankerous to everyone in the...