Several people sit together reading proverbs aloud to each other. From these proverbs are prompted stories of each one's past, or musings surrounding lifelong mysteries. Each tries to tell about some incident which they hope will illuminate their own being; hoping the others will understand who they are. Each story flows to the next, with a musical quality to the randomness. Albee explains it this way: "FRAGMENTS lacks plot in any established sense; there is no clear dilemma and resolution—no 'story,' no apparent sequentially. The piece proceeds as a piece of music does—accumulating, accumulating, following its own logic. Its effectiveness, its coherence reside in what we have experienced from the totality of it. FRAGMENTS is also a very simple, straightforward piece—on its own terms, of course."