In Washington DC, Meatball Mulligan is hosting a lease-breaking party that is entering its 40th straight hour. Many of the guests are wannabe expatriates who pride themselves on their cultured tastes, despite not having left the United States. Among the party guests are a musical group known as the Duke di Angelis quartet (who are listening to a record on repeat), a group playing cards, several government agents, and a woman asleep in the sink. Callisto, another party guest, is trying to warm up a sick bird by caressing it. Aubade, a woman that Callisto is romantically involved with, wakes up next to him. Callisto then begins to describe to Aubade his worries involving the laws of thermodynamics and the eventual heat death of the universe. Callisto connects this worry with his anxiety toward the temperature outside which has remained 37 degrees Farenheit for several days. A man named Saul arrives at the party via the fire escape and communicates a falling out he had with his wife regarding human behavior and its relationship with computers to Meatball. Five Navy personnel who believe the apartment is a brothel then arrive looking to solicit non-present services. The Duke di Angelis quartet stop listening to their record and begin to have a jam session without instruments. A fight then breaks out between the Navy personnel and a woman at street level they were harassing. Meatball then works to calm everyone down. The bird that Callisto was caressing dies and Callisto and Aubade wait for their doom, deeming this event to be the beginning of the heat death of the universe.