Plot Summary

ACT I

Eve and Ray, a middle aged Black and Palestinian couple living in Harlem, unexpectedly discover that they will be having a child. This is exciting news but causes the couple some unexplained distress. During a routine checkup, Eve’s enigmatic doctor senses the couple’s anxiety about the pregnancy and offers them exclusive access to newly produced gene editing technology. This technology will supposedly ensure that all goes according to plan for the couple and the only caveat is that they must sign non-disclosure agreements to keep it secret.

While debating the ethics of using this technology, Eve reveals that she had been the victim of a racist hate crime 10 years prior resulting in her first miscarriage and consequent perceived infertility. This is why the couple was so surprised by- and worried about- news of this most recent pregnancy.

By leveraging both this traumatic experience and his own struggles as an Arab immigrant, Ray ultimately convinces Eve to redesign their baby with white-passing features, thereby instilling their child with the white privilege they never received. Eve’s sole request is that she undergo no more sonograms in order to avoid directly watching the gene editing process unfold.

However, as a result of this decision, the couple is surprised to find Eve has give birth to twins, one white child as guaranteed by the gene-editing technology and another child resembling her parents.

ACT II

Eighteen years have passed since Eve’s pregnancy and the twins prepare for their final week of high school. Eve and Ray’s white son, Lou, has become a rule-abiding valedictorian. Everyone, including Lou, has been convinced that he is adopted. Eve and Ray’s daughter, Nana, on the other hand, is passionate, restless, non-white passing, and thus often antagonized.

Upon talking back to a teacher at school, Nana is suspended and sent home early from school. Eve reprimands her for this and asks why she couldn’t be more like her brother, Lou. Later that night, an FBI Agent visits the family’s apartment to find Lou at the front door. The Agent, visibly confused by Lou’s appearance, shares that he is looking for Eve. The Agent reveals that he will be reopening the investigation into the hate crime committed against Eve two decades prior.

Several days later, he alerts Eve that this investigation has proven fruitless and that he is instead concerned by the absence of Lou’s adoption records. The Agent declares that until the couple provides evidence of their son's supposed adoption, Lou will be taken into foster care.

Eve desperately asks the Doctor for help but he simply reminds her of the non-disclosure agreement and claims that there is little he can do. Nana, who is still suspended from school, sneaks into Lou’s foster home during the day and takes this opportunity to air her frustrations with him. This instigates a violent response from Lou and the siblings' altercation escalates.

Lou’s foster parent, a white woman, sees the siblings fighting and calls the police to report a supposed break-in and assault. Meanwhile, given the lack of evidence regarding Lou's birth or adoption, the Agent arrests Ray and Eve for the kidnapping of their own son. Back at Lou's foster home, an armed police officer has answered the foster mother's call and enters the house to find Nana holding Lou down on the floor. A gunshot sounds out.