As the curtain opens, in semidarkness, amid shouted directions, noisy stumblings and obvious confusion, a family spills out of the stairway, dropping luggage and household possessions all over the room, and collapsing in relief, fleeing an unbearable Noise. Zénobie is the only one to acknowledge the Noise, which had chased them away from their previous apartment and from the one before that, and from several others in the past. Each time the family has moved, one or more members disappeared, and each time the apartment they find themselves in is smaller and poorer than the one before. In the corner, cowering, is the schmürz.
