Spiros Antonapoulos and John Singer are two friends who bond over being the only men who are deaf in their town. The friends live together and only separate for work. Spiros loves to cook and delights in eating while John loves his company and playing chess with Spiros. Their bond is challenged when Spiros gets sick, and the doctor orders him to keep a healthier diet. When he gets better, Spiros starts acting strangely; he starts shoplifting, and John spends all his money on bail for Spiros. This continues until Spiros’s cousin has him taken to a psychiatric hospital.

John is lonely without Spiros. Though John was educated at a school for children who are deaf and is very intelligent, he has a shy nature, so Spiros was his only friend. Without Spiros to cook for him, John takes his meals at the local New York Café. In his free time, John walks alone around the town.

Biff Brannon owns and runs the New York Café. His wife, Alice, with whom he is distant, is worried about a drunk man who has spent the entire week at the café-bar: