Romance concerned with the life of "quiet desperation" led in a small town.
The sole wish of Flora Owens, a widow who made an unfortunate marriage, is to see her daughters improve their status. Millie, sixteen, boisterous but bright, has already won a scholarship. Beautiful Madge, nineteen, is courted by Allen Seymour, a banker's son and college graduate. Rooming in the Owens's house is Rosemary, a middle-aged schoolteacher who pretends to scorn marriage but is inwardly desperate. During a Labour Day picnic all their lives change. Madge falls madly in love with Hal, Allen's college friend, a vagrant athlete whose chief distinction is his charm. He seduces her, and as she follows him out of town, Madge duplicates her mother's past. Rosemary manages to capture her steady beau after a heartrending plea. Only Millie, who vows that love will never make her helpless, will escape the daily tedium and loneliness, the pattern of small-town life.
Produced New York, Music Box Theatre, February 19, 1953.