This is essentially a memory. Tom Wingfield talks about the time - between the two wars - when he lived in St. Louis with his mother Amanda Wingfield - a woman endowed with tremendous vitality, but not able to adapt to the present and desperately clinging to the past, and sister Laura - a dreamer who had transferred to childhood, a serious illness - one of her legs remained slightly shorter than the other. Tom himself, a poet in his heart, then served in a shoe store and suffered painfully while doing hateful things, and in the evenings he listened to his mother’s endless stories about her life in the South, about fans left there and other real and imaginary victories ...
Amanda is eagerly awaiting the success of the children: Tom's career advancement and Laura's profitable marriage. She does not want to see how her son hates his work and how timid and unsociable daughter is. Mother’s attempt to arrange Laura for typewriting crashes - her hands shake so much from fear and nervous tension that she can’t hit the right key. It’s good for her only at home when she is busy with her collection of glass animals. After failing with the courses, Amanda becomes even more obsessed with Laura’s marriage. At the same time, she is trying to influence her son - she is trying to control his reading: she is convinced that the novels of Lawrence, the son’s favorite writer, are too dirty. Strange Amanda seems Tom’s habit to spend almost all the free evenings in the cinema. For him, these campaigns are a way to escape from the monotonous routine, the only outlet is like a glass menagerie for my sister.
Choosing the right moment, Amanda pulls out a promise from Tom to bring some decent young man to Laura’s house. Some time later, Tom invites his colleague Jim O’Connor, the only person in the store, with whom he is on friendly foot for dinner. Laura and Jim were in the same school, but for Jim the surprise is that she is Tom's sister. Laura, still a schoolgirl, was in love with Jim, who was always in the spotlight - shone in basketball, led a discussion club, sang in school productions. For Laura to see this prince of her girlish dreams again is a real shock. Shaking his hand, she almost faints and quickly hides in her room. Soon, under a specious pretext, Amanda sends Jim to her. The young man does not recognize Laura, and she herself has to reveal to him that they have known each other for a long time. Jim hardly recalls the girl whom he nicknamed Blue Rose at school. This glorious, friendly young man did not succeed in life as much as he promised in his school years. True, he does not lose hope and continues to make plans. Laura gradually calms down - with her sincere, interested tone, Jim relieves her nervous tension, and she gradually begins to speak with him as a long-time friend.
Jim cannot help but see the girl’s terrible complexes. He tries to help, convinces her that her limp does not catch the eye at all - no one at school even noticed that she wears special shoes. People are not at all evil, he is trying to interpret Laura, especially when you get to know them better. Almost everyone doesn’t get along well — they are not good at considering themselves worse than everyone. In his opinion, the main problem of Laura is that she hammered into her head: only she has everything bad ...
Laura asks about the girl whom Jim met at school - they said that they were engaged. Upon learning that there was no wedding and Jim had not seen her for a long time, Laura was in full bloom. One feels that a timid hope has arisen in the soul of ee. She shows Jim her collection of glass figurines - the highest mark of trust. Among the animals, a unicorn stands out - an extinct animal that does not look like anyone else. Jim immediately pays attention to him. Is it probably boring for you to stand on the same shelf with ordinary animals like glass horses?
Through the open window from the restaurant across from you can hear the sounds of a waltz. Jim invites Laura to dance, she refuses - she is afraid that she will squeeze his leg. “But I'm not glass,” Jim says with a laugh. In dance, they still come across a table, and the unicorn forgotten there falls. Now he is the same as everyone: his horn has broken off.
Jim with feeling tells Laura that she is an extraordinary girl, not like anyone else - just like her unicorn. She is beautiful. She has a sense of humor. Like her, one in a thousand. In a word, Blue Rose. Jim kisses Laura - enlightened and scared, she sits on the sofa. However, she misinterpreted this movement of the young man’s soul: a kiss is just a sign of Jim’s tender participation in the girl’s fate and also an attempt to make her believe in herself.
However, when he sees Laura’s reaction, Jim is scared and in a hurry to announce that he has a bride. But Laura must believe: she will be fine too. It is only necessary to overcome their complexes. Jim continues to utter typically American platitudes like “man is the master of his own destiny”, etc., not noticing that an expression of infinite sadness appears on Laura’s face, which has just radiated divine radiance. She hands Jim a unicorn - in memory of this evening and of her.
Amanda’s appearance in the room looks like a clear dissonance to everything that happens here: she keeps playfully and is almost sure that the groom is on the hook. However, Jim quickly brings clarity and, saying that he has to hurry - he still needs to meet his bride at the station - he takes leave and leaves. Before the door closes behind him, Amanda explodes and sets up a scene for her son: what was this lunch for and all the expenses if the young man was busy? For Tom, this scandal is the last straw. Having left work, he leaves home and embarks on wanderings.
In the epilogue, Tom says that he will never succeed in forgetting his sister: "I did not know that I was so devoted to you that I could not betray." In his imagination, a beautiful image of Laura arises, blowing out a candle before going to bed. “Goodbye Laura,” Tom says sadly.
