It involves an accountant named George Spelvin, who is mistaken for an actor's understudy and forced to perform in a play for which he does not know any of the lines.
The play was inspired by the dreams actors and performers often have in which they are about to go on stage and need help remembering their lines or rehearsal instructions.
However, the play inconsistently shifts between scenes from Private Lives, Hamlet, Checkmate, and A Man for All Seasons.
When forced to improvise a soliloquy in the Hamlet scene, George tells the audience that he was raised in a Catholic school and was interested in joining a monastery, but they told him to wait until he was older.
He accepts the execution but appears to be dead during the curtain call, much to the cast's confusion.