William Inge's famous story of marital frustration which erupts in violence. Doc and Lola had an indiscreet affair, she became pregnant and, compelled to marry her, he gave up his medical studies, forfeited his future and settled down to a life of quiet desperation with the simple, homey Lola, who lost the child but has remained Doc's steadfast if slatternly wife. Now a chiropractor and recovering alcoholic, Doc's sobriety is tested when Marie, a young college student becomes their boarder bringing new life and long-dormant hostilities to the surface of Doc and Lola's troubled marriage.