Act I takes place mid-morning at Don’s Resale Shop in a downtown location of an unnamed city. The resale shop is home to various odds and ends. Donny, a man in his late 40s, and Bobby, a teenager, are in the back of the shop. They discuss Bobby’s failure to attend to a customer’s exit via the store front, as instructed. Donny lectures Bobby on the importance of doing good business, which he explains, in punctuated examples, involves being a man of action. To illustrate his point, Donny invites Bobby to think about a man named Fletcher, who, according to Donny, could end up running a town with only a nickel in his pocket.

They discuss the poker game from the previous night. Donny explains how Fletcher and Ruthie won considerable amounts of money. Bobby asks how Teach did, and Donny replies that he didn’t do well. Donny assures Bobby that one can learn to be good at something like business. When Bobby suggests that Fletcher once conned Ruthie out of a piece of pig-iron, Donny says that such was an act of business, which should not be confused with friendship.