The Sonar Moti Tenement (Bombay) Progressive Association is gathering to put American President Lyndon B. Johnson on mock trial for his role in the proliferation of atomic weaponry. The SMTPA is composed of socially committed activists who try to raise awareness of issues of significance affecting members of their Indian community that might be overlooked in favor of more pressing concerns. As various members of the association arrive, important information about their backgrounds, present circumstances, and interrelationships are conveyed: there is Mr. Kashikar, a social worker, and his wife, who is doting but unable to give him children; the pretentious actor, Karnik; the lawyer, Sukhatme; the science student, Ponkshe; the vibrant and free teacher, Benare; and the ward of the Kashikars and errand-boy of the troupe, Balu Rodke. Two members of the group, Professor Damle and Mr. Rawte, are not able to make it to the performance. Samant, a local village man, is there to help them into the hall they’ll be using for their evening show.
Performance time is still a few hours away, so those who have made it decide to pass the time through improvisation; this is also done to help Samant, who has to help fill in tonight, understand a courtroom’s proceedings. Though the roles that most of them are slated to play remain essentially unchanged, there will be one very great change: a new defendant will be put on trial. Since Benare happens to have left the room at this time, the others decide she will be placed on trial. When she returns and discovers what is taking place, she suggests thievery as a replacement for the crime they have chosen for her: infanticide. The crime was not chosen randomly: the vivacious, early-30s woman is routinely criticized behind her back for her “unconventional” lifestyle. Soon enough, it becomes pointedly apparent that there may be little about this trial of Benare that is purely random.
The very purpose of the SMTPA is indicative of the collective opinion the members hold of themselves. They have ordained themselves as an entity charged with educating the more ignorant members of the community; more than just educating them, they see themselves as guiding them to a more elevated understanding of social causes. In reality, they seem more interested in being judgmental of others than in bringing them up to equal standing.
When Balu Rokde offers the enticing information that, in reality, he did once see Benare inside the home of Professor Damle, the "mock" part of the trial begins to blend with real life. Samant fabricates a theory to explain what Rokde actually witnessed that day: Benare was having an affair with Damle and wound up pregnant, a scenario which, of course, would naturally end with the infanticide with which she is charged. The only problem is that Benare’s response to Samant’s entirely constructed fiction is too emotionally overwrought to be acting: in fact, Samant has, entirely by accident, hit upon a real-life truth.
At that point, when it seems that an unexpected and ugly truth has inserted itself too deeply into the proceedings to turn back, the mock trial takes on an increasingly dramatic tone. When Benare attempts to flee the room, she finds it has been locked from the outside, trapping her in the role of criminal defendant. The trial continues with testimony from two of the men that Benare pleaded with them to marry her and help protect the child from being raised illegitimately, but that both men rejected her.
Sukhatme takes on the role of the prosecutor in the mock trial—he was the one who suggested that Benare be put on trial in the first place. He goes overboard in painting Benare as the very embodiment of the corruption of the institution of motherhood. Presiding over the trial is the status-conscious Mr. Kashikar, who, in addition to being judge, breaks with precedent, tradition, and convention by temporarily putting aside his judicial robes and taking the stand as a witness. He explains he feels free of duty and impartiality to the extent that he castigates all adult unmarried girls as a “sinful canker on the body of society” before providing yet more damning evidence about Benare.
The prosecution having rested, the trial is turned over to the defense to call witnesses. There is just one problem: all three witnesses who could possibly be called to refute any of the allegations being made against Benare just so happen not to be present. The prosecuting attorney goes on to give his closing argument and then, at the judge’s request, goes on to present closing arguments for the defense. Judge Kashikar inquires if Benare has anything at all to say in her defense.
There is an imagined scene (the lights change and the others freeze in place) in which Benare proceeds to give a long, passionate speech. She details how she never quite fit into society and how she once tried to end her life but did not succeed, consequently having a greater appreciation for life. Her failed love affair with Damle meant she was once again in trouble, but she would raise the child anyway. She laments how people cannot mind their own business and stay out of others’ private lives, and she resents that even though she’s given her all to her job, the administration wants to remove her for being an unwedded mother. At the conclusion of his emotionally intense monologue, the action of the play resumes as normal.
Kashikar reiterates how grave her crime is for society as a whole, and he delivers a guilty verdict as well as punishment: the illegitimate fetus growing inside Benare is to be aborted. Benare collapses to the floor.
Suddenly, the drama is broken by the sound of the locked door opened by the villagers who have come to the mock trial of President Johnson. As if coming out of a dream state, the actors on stage slowly remove the trappings of their “characters” and become their real selves again. As Benare remains unmoving on the floor, they try to persuade her that it was all nothing but a game and not to take it seriously, but she remains lifeless. The others leave her there as they wander off to prepare for the scheduled performance. Finally, the only thing left on stage is her body crumpled on the floor, along with a little stuffed bird from Samant.
