Period of Adjustment by Tennessee Williams. Short summary

5 seconds

Two couples, older and younger, have problems in their lives. The husbands in both couples are Korean War veterans. But on Christmas Eve, they have drinks together at one of the couples’ houses and give each other advice.

1 minute

On Christmas Eve, two married couples are drinking together at a couple’s home in Tennessee. They are newlyweds Isabel and George Highverstick and an older couple, Ralph and Dorothea Bates. The latter have been married for five years.

Both men are Korean War veterans. They became friends in the war, and George met Isabel when she was a nurse in the hospital where he was wounded.

Both couples have problems in their lives. George had post-traumatic stress disorder after the war. He quit his job and didn’t tell his wife about it.

Ralph doesn’t like Dorothea; he married her because she is his boss’s daughter and also because of the money. But over the course of a friendly conversation, both couples counsel each other, give each other advice, and it forces both couples to come to terms with their lives and adjust to it.