A man in his sixties named Hirst begins a night of heavy drinking (mainly Scotch) in his drawing room with an anonymous peer who he only just met at a pub. Hirst's overly talkative guest, calling himself a poet, long-windily explains how he is a penetratingly perceptive man, until he finally introduces himself by the name "Spooner". As the men are becoming more inebriated, Hirst suddenly rises and throws his glass, while Spooner suddenly taunts Hirst about his masculinity and wife. A young man enters and suspiciously questions Spooner, who now becomes relatively silent, about his identity. The younger man introduces himself as John "Jack" Foster before the entrance of a man in his forties, Briggs, who also unsuccessfully questions Spooner and then bickers with Foster. At last, Hirst reenters, having slept, and struggles to remember a recent dream. He does not appear to completely remember Spooner's identity. The situation gradually reveals that Foster is Hirst's apprentice and ...