It begins as the elderly painter Donner lies dead at the bottom of the staircase in the studio he shares with fellow artists Martello and Beauchamp, who are accusing each of murder. From this moment on, through an inventive dramatic framework of 11 scenes that flash back and forward between the years 1914 and 1972, Stoppard examines the artists' relationships to each other, to their work and to a beautiful blind woman named Sophie, who was loved by Donner, courted by Beauchamp, sculpted by Martello, and died tragically....Cover.

Tom Stoppard presents two works which explore in contrasting ways the workings of Viennese society in the 1890s, setting the upper-class stylized codes of behavior against their effects in practice on human relationships. Dalliance was first performed at the National Theatre in 1986. Undiscovered Country was first produced at the National Theatre in 1979.