In the Next Room takes place in the 1880s, at “the dawn of electricity; and after the Civil War” (5), in the living room and private operating theater of Dr. Givings, who specializes in gynecological and hysterical disorders. The Givings home is located outside New York City, in a town that may or may not be Saratoga Springs. In the living room, Mrs. Catherine Givings shows her baby the marvel of an electric lamp. Dr. Givings walks through the living room on the way to his operating theater, returns to greet his wife, then returns to the operating theater, where his midwife assistant, Annie, is preparing the room. Catherine talks to her baby, nearly weeping as she promises to find the child a wet nurse because she isn’t producing enough milk herself. She feels guilty for hoping to find a wet nurse who doesn’t have her own child, since that would most likely mean that her baby died. Dr. Givings reenters and informs Catherine that a new patient will arrive soon, and Annie should answer the door because the woman is fragile and seeing the baby might upset her.