Paris 1923: Act I opens with Isadora and her husband Sergei waking up on a sofa, hung over from a night of serious drinking. They get up and constantly talk past each other. She does not speak Russian and he does not speak English.

A friend stops by, somewhat later also a Miss Belzer, a stranger and a fan of Isadora, who happens to be Russian and so begins to play the part of the interpreter. Despite her initial reluctance, Belzer eventually translates some of the verbal abuses Sergei constantly hurls at Isadora.

A little later, Alexandros Eliopolos, a piano prodigy, stops by. He admires Isadora, having been told endlessly about her by his mother (who went as far as making Isadora’s surname Duncan his middle name). Eventually Sergei insults Isadora, saying that she will die and memory of her dance with her, but his poetry will remain forever. He then goes on to recite a poem in Russian which he has recited to Isadora before. She adores it even though she does not understand one word of it.

Upon Isadora’s insistence and longing to understand the poem at last, Belzer reveals that the poem is about a dog who watches her owner put her puppies in a sack and drown them. When Isadora is shocked, Sergei reacts with offence. He tears up a photograph of Isadora’s two children who drowned in a car accident years ago and tosses the pieces into the fire, then storms out and goes for a walk.

Act II opens with Isadora contemplating suicide. She is indifferent to news of a contract in Vienna having come through and no longer cares for it even though she has just admitted how much money Sergei needs constantly and having just had fresh lobsters and champagne brought over for dinner with Luciano Zavani, who she hopes will help her open a children’s school in Italy. She proposes to steer the children away from education and teach them the movements of nature, as she puts it. With Eliopolos acting as translator, she explain her plan to Luciano, who then goes on to invite Eliopolos for dinner and more the next evening.

When Luciano presses Isadora to explain just what kind of dance she performs, she cannot tell him and will not give a demonstration. Enter Christine Duncan, a Swedish girl who imitates Isadora. Following her friend Mary’s advice, Isadora lets the girl demonstrate her dance. The demonstration is a disaster. Sergei says that he will hang himself in protest against this misinterpretation of Isadora’s art. It also turns out that Isadora will not be able to go to Vienna for her contract because she had earlier styled herself as a Bolshevik sympathiser. Just then, men arrive to take away the table, which Isadora had sold earlier to pay for the champagne.

Luciano makes to leave, promising to do what he can, even though he is just a file clerk working in the archive at the Italian embassy. Isadora had been under the impression that he was “the vice-consul or something.”

The Act closes with Isadora and Sergei lying on the sofa. While Sergei snores away, Isadora builds castles in the air.

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