A man knocks at the door of a humble suburban household. The stranger is a Hungarian who has returned to his country after 40 years as an exile in the USA. He has come to thank the man who saved his life and helped him emigrate in 1956. However, the benefactor, who is still communist, will hear nothing of such kindness.

The Visitor is determined to express his blind gratitude while the Old Man is still stuck in Stalinist times. The Wife knows nothing of the outside world and is limited to her everyday gestures and words. The Woman shows every sign of becoming a misfit in a world of growing capitalism despite her nervous enthusiasm.
This is a comedy in which none of the characters have anything in common, save a mind confined to the past, to habit, to limbo, to illusion. The play hangs by a single thread: Will the Old Man accept that he saved the Visitor's life 40 years ago?
After the fall of communism comes the fall of post-communism, a dark theme that runs throughout the play.