A timid and unwitting houseguest named Smedley is lured into the surreally genteel world of his vaguely foreboding host and hostess, Pumpkin and Gottfried. A wordless, frenzied game of Yahtzee ensues (where only elitist rules apply), and Smedley blunders blindly through a barrage of violent inconsistency. He is first welcomed, then subsequently tortured, applauded, shunned, loved, baffled, seduced and ultimately forced to cause the total destruction of the parallel universe in which he allowed himself to desperately attempt to belong. Searching for allies in a disconcerting butler named Rose and a silent, slightly menacing houseguest in a red-checked dress proves fruitless. Maniacally choreographed to music ranging from Japanese pop to sliced-and-diced Stravinsky to a jacked-up version of The Music Man’s "Shipoopi", Parlour Problems compacts seventy-three door slams, four swordfights, twenty-seven punches to the face, fourteen 30-second stares and one pie-in-the-face gag into Smedley's hour-long nightmare journey into the world of not belonging.