the play opens with the main characters lisa and clint meeting for the first time. clint has accompanied a friend to lisa and her mother's mobile home to see lisa's mother, a prostitute. clint picks up on lisa's unease about her mother's situation and begins charming her. the next scene opens a few years later and clint and lisa have married and have twins who are being cared for by clint's mother. the couple has been living in a series of motel rooms and are playing a scam whereby lisa lures young girls into the room where clint rapes and abuses them. afterwards, lisa murders the girls and disposes of their bodies. plagued with guilt, lisa calls the police with anonymous tips on the location of the bodies. act i concludes with the couple's arrest.