Act I Street Scene One day in the life of a New York apartment building. The story focuses on Anna Maurrant and her family. She is frustrated by her husband and worried about her teenage daughter Rose. She is also having an affair with the milkman that has attracted the notice of her gossiping multi-ethnic neighbors. Rose is frustrated by her parents' unhappiness and aspires to better things, yet hesitates to commit herself to her boyfriend Sam Kaplan. In the second act, Frank Maurrant murders Anna when he learns of her affair. Rose then leaves the tenement and Sam behind to make a new, independent life for herself.