The work is a large one-act play, lacking significant stage action, and essentially serves as an elegy on the concept of time and the utopia of poetic sensitivity.

The dominant theme in this is cannibalism. The elderly Mrs. Venable maintains carnivorous plants in her garden that feed on insects. Mrs. Venable and her son, Sebastian, make a special trip to the Galápagos Islands to witness vultures attacking and devouring newborn sea turtles.

And finally, Catherine Holly becomes an eyewitness to the violent death of Sebastian at the hands of starving children from Mexico, who assault and dismember him.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]