One evening in the life of Lorenz Hart, best known as the lyricist half of the successful songwriting team of Rodgers and Hart (as in Richard Rodgers), is dramatized. That evening is March 31, 1943, arguably the worst night of his life in it being opening night of the new Broadway musical Oklahoma (exclamation point) written by Rodgers and his new lyricist partner Oscar Hammerstein II, all indications being that it will be the biggest hit in Rodgers' already illustrious career. Rodgers was the one who took a pause in working with Hart due to his alcoholism and thus his unreliability as a working partner. As such, Larry, as his friends refer to him, is very bitter about the situation, taking sly jabs at the show and especially Hammerstein's lyrics while still trying to appear supportive. Having left the theater before the closing curtain, Larry heads to Sardi's, which will later that evening be the site of the opening night post-show gathering in wait of the critic reviews. As he awaits the onslaught of adoring fans of Rodgers' and now Hammerstein's, forty-seven year old Larry may see the one bright spot of the evening being his planned "date" with twenty year old Elizabeth Weiland, a student at Yale with who he has had a thus far platonic friendship which he hopes will veer into the romantic in his need to be adored, including sexually by someone seen as desirable.