A man recalls his intimate friendship with his former English professor, who resolved to fuel his unsatisfied desire for playwriting during the time they were apart. In their reunion decades later, instead of the brilliant play he promised, the professor shows his former student a disturbing product of his mental instability.

An elderly shopkeeper tells a customer about his experiences as a prominent actor's understudy for various decades. The customer witnesses how the old man's obsessions with his unfulfilling acting career still occupy his everyday thoughts and behaviors.