Act 1, Scene 1 Summary

The play opens in a room at the Royal Palms Hotel in the town of St. Cloud, somewhere on the Gulf Coast. A handsome young man named Chance Wayne is rising from a big bed in which a woman still sleeps, a mask covering her eyes. A knock at the door reveals a waiter with coffee and Bromo. Church bells begin to chime amid the sounds of morning birds. Chance didn't know that it is Sunday, and the waiter clarifies that it is Easter Sunday. As the waiter leaves, George Scudder, an old friend of Chance's, pushes his way into the room telling Chance that the night manager had phoned him to tell him that Chance is back in town.

George is now Chief of Staff at the hospital and is due in surgery in a few minutes. He wanted to...