The play resumes following a three-year lapse at the farmhouse David and Hester have inherited after Andrew Falk’s death. David’s close friends and family have gathered at the house, eagerly awaiting his brother Amos’s baseball game. Pat is later revealed to have received a telegram from Augie Belfast, a talent scout for the Detroit Tigers, notifying the family that he will be watching the game tonight specifically for Amos. After they return from the game, the crowd awaits Belfast’s arrival and the verdict on whether Amos has the skill to be drafted into the major league at the Beeves’ residence. During this brief interim, David decides to invest in a mink farm at the persuasion of Dan Dibble. Spirits are high within the group initially, but as time passes without any sign of Belfast, Beeves starts to doubt the value of man’s hard work and determination. When the man ultimately does show, he lauds Amos’s talent as a pitcher, but remarks that when the bases are loaded, he becomes panicky because he has been used to practicing in the cellar throughout his life. He leaves the house unwilling to make any sort of deal with Amos. Resentful and humiliated, Amos vows never to play baseball again, blames his father for his misfortunes, and discloses his envious feelings toward David’s fulfillment in life. Beeves tells him he is not fulfilled in life because of his perceived inability to have children, which spurs Hester to unexpectedly reveal that she is having a child.