The Carrington family — helmed by George and Iris — maintain a privileged, ostensibly pleasant life in New York City. But little things plague them; the maid is incompetent, the children are always catching colds, the mother feels every morning as though her soul has left her body, and the father is troubled by the fact that no one is "as real to him as he is to himself." Worst of all, the youngest daughter, Cindy, has terrible nightmares. Cindy dreams up a tiger that hides in her room and stalks her. Unbeknownst to the family, a tiger escapes from a circus in Rhode Island, and a junkie roams their streets at night and breaks into apartment buildings. Amid Cindy's nightmares and other inconveniences like missing gloves, lost dinner invitations, bickering siblings, awkward cocktail parties, and perpetually grating city sounds, the family ponders moving to the South of France. So wrapped up in the little discontent of their own lives, George and Iris barely manage to be concerned for the misery in the outside world. A month late, they halfheartedly lament the suicide of their friend's cook. Another one of the desperate night actors is a widow who fell out of society, and who now scavenges while the city sleeps. George finds her sprawled out on one of his morning walks and wonders, briefly, if she's been murdered. When he asks if she's alright and she doesn't reply, he simply walks on. One night soon after, George hears someone shriek "help!" from his bedroom window. He goes to sleep with a feeling of horror, but does nothing.