Act I. The drawing room of the Villa Caprice, Madame Dubonnet’s Finishing School, near Nice. Morning in the year 1926.

The curtain rises on Hortense, a chic French maid reclining on a divan in the middle of the drawing room. On the telephone, she rings the tailor to confirm the delivery of Miss Polly’s costume in time for the Carnival Ball tonight. Maisie, Dulcie, Fay and Nancy are extremely beautiful girls as they squawk through the hallway disturbing the maid. Hortense gives an angry look. Have they forgotten who they are? Forgotten who they are? Of course not! It is the day after the election and they find themselves suddenly living in a floating space of waiting for what they do not know but know to fear. They are tired. They are young and gay and their only desire is to make the most of their youthful gayness. They worry privately about themselves and their futures. They worry about what will be expected of them. They worry about the pressure to keep fighting, to keep fearing, to keep moving. They worry their lives will stay the same and they will stop caring. They worry their lives will change in ways they have no control over and did not welcome. What does it even mean, anyway, to fight when you haven’t made a habit of it?