This winner of the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
uses a card game as a metaphor for life. Weller Martin is playing solitaire on the porch of a seedy nursing home. Enter Fonsia Dorsey, a prim, self-righteous lady. They discover their mutual disdain of the nursing home, and love of gin rummy, so they begin to play— while revealing intimate details of their lives. Fonsia wins every time, and their secrets become weapons used against one another. Weller longs for a victory to counter a lifetime of defeats, but it doesn’t happen.