The play takes place in what seems to be the present or the near future, in an unnamed Western country that is undergoing political conflict: a ruling oligarchy with fascist tendencies, threatened by a movement based in the lower class, is imprisoning and executing anyone suspected of subversion, including writers and intellectuals who have no direct connection to the guerrillas.

Though the play is generally more realistic than Shawn's previous politically charged work The Fever, it focuses on the characters' emotional lives and leaves the civil war in the background. As a result, many reviewers of the play have been unclear as to whether the assassinated characters were killed by the government, for sympathizing with the rebels, or by the rebels, for being privileged academics. A close reading of the play suggests that the rebels (if they even exist) have not gained power and that what has occurred is a purge by one faction of the regime.