The Play (Masterplots II: Drama, Revised Edition)  Trifles tells
the story of two investigations into the murder of John Wright.
The male characters carry on the official investigation while
the female characters carry on their own unofficial
investigation.  The play opens when its five characters enter
the kitchen of the Wright farmhouse. The county attorney takes
charge of the investigation, guiding the sheriff and Mr. Hale in
recounting their roles in the discovery of the crime. Mr. Hale
tells how he came to the house to ask John Wright about sharing
the cost of a phone line, only to find Mrs. Wright sitting in a
rocker. When he asks to speak with her husband, Mrs. Wright says
that he cannot speak with Mr. Hale because he is dead. Mr. Hale
investigates and finds that Wright has been hanged. After
commenting on Mrs. Wright’s poor housekeeping in ways that
irritate the women present, the county attorney leads the men
upstairs so he can search the scene of the crime for a motive.
The women are left alone. Wh