It is St. Louis in 1919. The central character is Liz, a youngish, gutsy, widowed woman faced with selling the family farm to pay debts. With her are her four daughters, one dying of tuberculosis, one who's married into a society family, another who's a blooming activist and the youngest on the brink of discovering sex and losing her innocence in general. As the play unfolds, it's apparent that 1919 is a watershed year in America's history. There are hints of the country heading uncertainly towards a new and different way of life. But essentially, it is about the social and psychological state of women and the painful solitude imposed by that state. Then at the end, a telegram arrives stating that the family's only son has died, a victim of one of war's side effects.