When the play opens, the central character, Charles Charles, is trying to get a hold on a memory and its meaning. The memory takes Charles Charles back nineteen years to the Provincetown Playhouse in the summer of 1919. That year at the Provincetown Playhouse, Charles Charles and two other young actors were accused of a hideous crime; a crime committed during the performance of a play they had written and staged. Who and what is on trial in the years following the alleged crime; the murderer, the writer, the memory or theatre itself?

« CHARLES CHARLES 38 : The three suspects were arraigned before the Magistrate of the Court of Massachusetts this morning. All formally denied knowledge of the content of the bag. (Pause.) In your play, what was the bag supposed to contain? The judge asked young Winslow Byron. / CHARLES CHARLES 19 : "Alas, a child, Your Honour", he answered. »

"(...) This wonderful text will one day be recognized for what it is : one of the most fascinating plays ever written in North America." Robert Lévesque, Le Devoir, June 4, 1985.