N. Richard Nash's romantic drama is set on a drought-stricken Western ranch, where the practical Curry family is losing hope of rain, and their unmarried daughter Lizzie has similarly resigned herself to a life without love or marriage. Into this bleak setting arrives Bill Starbuck, a charismatic con man who promises to bring rain for a fee, and whose flamboyant confidence and belief in possibility awaken something in the withdrawn, self-doubting Lizzie even as her family and a steady local sheriff worry he is nothing but a fraud. The play uses the literal drought as a metaphor for emotional and spiritual dryness, exploring how hope, faith, and a willingness to believe in the impossible can transform a person's sense of their own worth. It became a beloved romantic classic and was adapted into both a film and the musical 110 in the Shade.

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