The play begins with the protagonist, Chance Wayne, drinking coffee in a hotel room in St. Cloud, Florida, while Princess Kosmonopolis, alias of aging actress Alexandra del Lago, sleeps in the bed in the room. Princess agrees to help Chance start a career in acting. Later, we discover that Chance has come back to reconcile with Heavenly Finley, a girlfriend to whom Chance caused to have a venereal disease, much to the chagrin of Boss Finley, her father and a powerful figure in the town. In the end, Chance fails to reconcile with Heavenly and it is implied that he is castrated at the hands of Boss Finley's henchmen in retribution for corrupting his daughter.