This winner of the 1978 Pulitzer Prize, uses a 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 they both dislike the home and enjoy gin rummy so they begin to play and to reveal 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. He leaves the stage a broken man and Fonsia realizes her self righteous rigidity has led to an embittered, lonely old age.

Louise Reynolds injured her leg during rehearsals at the Alden and performed in a wheelchair, but was replaced by Gere for the Grange.