As the play begins a young man, Himmer, is trying to console his father on the death of his long-estranged wife (and Himmer's mother) whom neither has seen for many years, but the older man, Jacob, is apparently more interested in his model trains. Himmer then conceives the idea of honoring his mother's memory by staging a verse play, The Ruins of Athens, which she had written in her youth, but, in the meantime, his friend Samantha, a compulsive lover of married men, arrives to inform him that both she and he have tested seropositive for HIV test, which means that both are harboring the HIV virus, if not actually stricken with the disease.
Zero Positive guide sections
