The action of this play takes place at the Chinook Care Center, a fictional nursing home in Seattle, Washington, that specializes in the care of patients with Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia. The time is the mid-1980s.The main character, Lewis, who has just been admitted to the facility, is a man who played a prominent role in the production of nuclear weapons. He provides the plot engine; his aggressive and domineering personality is still very much alive, buried deep within his disability, and it is his desire to gain some kind of control over his new surroundings that moves the plot forward.