The play opens on an altar to Coatlicue, the Aztec Goddess of Creation and Destruction. The headless statue of Coatlicue, dressed in a serpent skirt and a necklace of hands and hearts, is awe-inspiring. She is flanked by the Cihuatateo, the divine spirits of women who died in childbirth. Cihuatateo East speaks, announcing that this story will begin and end with “the birth of a male child/from the dark sea of Medea” (9). Cihuatateo North hands Cihuatateo East a nurse’s cap, then covers her face with a black ski mask. Cihuatateo East, now a nurse, says that this is how all days begin and end.

In a psychiatric ward, a prison guard in a ski mask stands with her hands behind her back. Keys hang from her belt. Around her, a vase of flowers wilts, a hospital bed is unmade, and a game of dominos has been set up. Medea is a patient in the ward. She stares into a one-way mirror, through which the patients are observed. Her hair is disheveled, and her shadowed eyes reveal her lack of sleep. Medea can sense that she is being watched. The prison guard speaks to the