Set in a boathouse near rural Lebanon, Missouri in 1944, it is a romantic comedy following the characters Matt Friedman and Sally Talley as they settle their feelings for each other.

The one-act play takes place in a boathouse on the Talley farm in Missouri on the Fourth of July, 1944.

Taking the time to point out some staging elements, he tells the audience that the gazebo-like structure next to him is a Victorian boathouse, which has fallen into disrepair.

Sally arrives at the boathouse and is in disbelief that Matt has shown up uninvited, even though he had written her that he planned to come for the holiday.

Matt's arrival has created a stir in Sally's conservative Protestant household, where a Jewish man is not welcomed, especially when his intentions are to court their daughter, who is eleven years younger than he.

Apparently, she had been encouraging the students to read Thortstein Veblen's The Theory of the Leisure Class in addition to the Methodist reader.

Her unorthodox methods earned her the consternation of the church elders as well as her own family, who own the garment factory on which the labor issue centered.

Having risked the vulnerability of revealing his background, Matt presses Sally to share why she, a beautiful 31-year-old woman, has never married.

Sally agrees to marry him and move to St. Louis, and they vow to return to the boathouse every year so they don't forget where they fell in love.

Directed by Marshall W. Mason, the cast starred Judd Hirsch as Matt Friedman and Trish Hawkins as Sally Talley.

The play debuted on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on February 14, 1980, for previews, and closed on October 19, 1980, after 286 performances.

[3] An off-Broadway revival was mounted at the Laura Pels Theater in March 2013, directed by Michael Wilson and featuring Danny Burstein and Sarah Paulson.