Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses baby loss, domestic violence, sexual assault, abortion, racism, antisemitism, and anti-gay bias.

Melina Green is a senior at Bard College studying playwriting. She has submitted several plays to festivals and though none have been accepted, the faculty and students all believe that she will eventually make it as a successful playwright. In a meeting with her mentor, Professor Bufort, he urges her to submit to a collegiate competition—the prize for winning is a performance slot in the Samuel French Off-Off-Broadway Short Play Festival. Bufort also tells Melina that she needs to put more of herself into her plays and that after three years, he still feels like he doesn’t know her.

While Melina reluctantly agrees with his assessment, she does not want to put herself in the plays. As a young girl, her mother was diagnosed with cancer. As she sickened and died, Melina learned to stay out of her parents’ way and to be quiet and self-sufficient. She still goes through life making herself small. Before she leaves Bufort’s office, he squeezes her shoulders in a way that makes her uncomfortable. She shrugs it off and tries to forget.

In the apartment she shares with her best friend and roommate,

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