Bernadine’s marriage of eleven years has broken up. She had devoted herself to her husband’s success and to her children, and they had made it. Then her husband announced that he was leaving her for a white woman. She was devastated, so hurt and furious that she set fire to his clothes and car on the front lawn. Now she is going through divorce proceedings; she has just attended a meeting with her husband and their tow lawyers. It was bitter and painful. She stops into a bar at the nearby Biltmore and orders a drink. James is a black man, married to a white woman who is dying of cancer. He is staying in the hotel on a business trip.