Drama critic Fitzgerald Fortune goes to Throckmorton's curio shop to buy his young wife Esther a player piano as a birthday present. At the shop, as the hard-bitten and hard-shelled owner plays the piano, he reveals his soft, sentimental side to Fortune. Fortune notices that the piano's music somehow reveals people's true feelings and purchases it. Later at home, the solemn, elderly butler, Marvin, bursts out laughing under the influence of the piano and reveals that he actually enjoys working for Fortune. When Fortune puts on a roll for his wife, she confesses that she detests him for his cruelty to her and the people around him. He then tries it out on one of his wife's party guests, jaded playwright Gregory Walker, who admits to being in love with Fitzgerald's wife Esther and that they