Miss Sylvia Sails, a famed actress of the American stage who long, long ago chose retirement at the peak of her career ("not willing to decline from it") is awakened at 3:00 in the morning by Giuseppe, a handsome and felonious night clerk at her live-in hotel. It becomes clear soon enough that Giuseppe is after Miss Sails' extremely valuable sunburst diamond ring, but Miss Sails' knuckle is so swollen that the diamond ring cannot be removed from her finger unless her finger is removed from her hand. Held hostage, Miss Sails resists her captors, Giuseppe and his boyfriend Luigi, by reciting Shakespeare, by drinking with them, and most of all by endurance, outlasting them until daybreak when help arrives and the sun finally comes up.
A part of the collection The Traveling Companion and Other Plays.