Content Warning: This section of the guide describes and discusses the play’s treatment of death by suicide, alcohol addiction, narcotic addiction, racism, incest, sexual assault of a minor, and child abuse.

The play takes place in Beverly and Violet Weston’s large, tri-level, century-old house near Pawhuska, Oklahoma. The set, which is fixed, shows a cross section of the first and second floors and the attic, each of which are playing spaces. There are books everywhere, and the windows have been covered with shades that are held in place by duct tape. The Prologue opens in Beverly’s first-floor study, where Beverly is meeting with Johnna Monevata, an Indigenous woman in her mid-twenties who is interviewing for a job as a live-in housekeeper and caregiver. Beverly, who is 69, pontificates about literature and T. S. Eliot. He explains that he drinks too much, and his wife, Violet, who is 65, takes too many pills. Neither has any inclination to quit, so Beverly has decided to hire someone to help around the house.

Beverly knew Johnna’s father, whom Johnna says has since died of a heart attack. Her father went by the name Youngbird, while Johnna’s last name, Monevata, means Youngbird in their original language.