It is set in an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and the backgrounds of characters are revealed in the course of a birthday party. Harold celebrates his birthday. He becomes increasingly morose about losing his youthful looks and claims that he no longer can attract cute young men. "Cowboy", an attractive blond prostitute who is "not too bright",[3] is one of Harold's birthday presents. Alan McCarthy is an unexpected party guest. Michael's married college friend,[4] he is visiting New York and anxious to tell Michael something but hesitant to do so in front of the others. It is suggested that he once had homosexual affairs while in college, but his sexual orientation is never explicitly stated, leaving it to audience interpretation. The party is given by Harold's six closest friends: Michael is Harold's "friend-enemy",[4] the host, and a lapsed Catholic as well as an alcoholic. He is the catalyst for most of the drama of the play. Donald is Michael's conflicted boyfriend who has moved from the city to the Hamptons to spurn the homosexual "lifestyle", and is undergoing psychoanalysis. Bernard is an African-American, who still pines for the wealthy white boy in whose house his mother worked as a maid. Emory is a flamboyant and effeminate interior decorator. He is often campy in his sense of humor, which serves to irritate others. Larry, a fashion photographer who prefers multiple sex partners. Hank, Larry's live-in boyfriend who has been married to a woman from whom he is separated and is divorcing. He "passes" as straight and disagrees with Larry on the issue of monogamy. During the party, the humor takes a nasty turn, as the nine men become increasingly inebriated. The party culminates in a "game", where each man must call someone who he has loved and tell them about it. Michael, believing that Alan has finally "outed" himself when he makes his call, grabs the phone from him and discovers Alan has called his wife. We never learns what Alan intended to discuss with Michael in the end.
