Included in this volume are seven one-act plays ( , , and ), and five full-length plays ( and the classics and ), all written between 1914 and 1921 and produced for the stage between 1916 and 1922. The majority of these plays are heavily influenced by German expressionism—Freud, Nietzsche, Strindberg, and the radical leftist politics in which O'Neill was involved during his youth. Also included in this unique collection is the little-known and highly autobiographical play , which draws on O'Neill's confinement in the Gaylord Farm Sanatorium.