Synopsis

The hero of the story is dreaming in the backyard and the action of the play is mostly what happens in his head as he surveys his life up to this particular afternoon. Going backward and forward in time, we see the young man's relationships with his well-meaning but obtuse father, his loving but possessive mother, his compliant but unsentimental girlfriend. A neighbor boy is in effect the hero's little brother and sometimes in effect the hero as a kid. A soldier helps spell out the true location of the friendly summertree, which is, ultimately, Viet Nam, and a battle from which there will be no return.