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The setting is Strawberry Fields in Central Park on a warm autumn afternoon. A respectable but confused Old Lady, has wandered into the park and sits down on a bench, imagining that it is her seat at the opera, and that the events unfolding in the park constitute the show. A Student, intrigued, plays along with her fantasy. Some young people enter with guitars and sing in memory of John Lennon who, like the Old Lady's beloved Verdi, wrote songs of brotherhood and freedom. Her Son enters and tries to coax her to come along to a nursing home. The Old Lady refuses to go, saying that if she does she will miss the opera; the Student supports her position. Frustrated, her Son calls his sister on his cell phone, hoping that together they will be able to convince their mother to leave the city. Meanwhile, the Old Lady comes to believe that the Student is her lost husband; together they enjoy the "opera" as it proceeds around them. When the Son, Daughter and a Nurse approach with a wheelchair to take Her to the nursing home, it is too late: She is already gone.
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