"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...

"The setting is a small Oklahoma town in the early 1920s and the home of the Flood family: Rubin, a traveling salesman for a harness firm; Cora his sensitive and lovely wife; Sonny, their little boy; and Reenie their teen-age daughter. The plot consists of a series of short stories -- the fight between husband and wife; the fear of an overly shy young girl on going to a dance; the problems of an introverted little boy who feels that the whole world...

The story covers one Labor Day week-end in a small Kansas town, and tells about the impact a virile drifter has on the lives of several women in town.