Shen Te is a prostitute who struggles to lead a ‘good’ life. The citizens of Setzuan only pay lip service to this ‘good’
living. These are the very people who abuse her goodness. Her friends and neighbors prove to be brutal and in order to protect herself she invents an
alter ego; a male cousin named Shui Ta. She realizes that she must operate under the guise of both in order to live a good life.
Wang, a water carrier, explains to the
audience that he is on the city outskirts awaiting the appearance of several important Gods. Soon the Gods arrive and ask Wang to find shelter for them. They are tired, as they had traveled far in search of good people who still lived according to the principles that the Gods had handed down. Instead they had found only greed, evil, dishonesty and selfishness. They say that Setzuan is no different. No one gave them shelter nor even cared to speak to them – no one except the poor young woman Shen Te. She was so good that she couldn’t turn anyone away.
Shen Te is rewarded for her hospitality. They give her money and she buys a small tobacco shop. It is both a gift and a test for her. Will she be able to maintain her goodness with this new found means? If she succeeds, then God’s confidence in humanity would be restored.
Though at first Shen Te lives up to God’s expectations, her generosity quickly turns her small shop into a messy, overcrowded poorhouse which attracts crime and police supervision.
In one sense, Shen Te quickly fails the test and is forced to invent her tough cousin, Shui Ta to oversee and protect her interests. She wears male clothing, a mask and a forceful voice and arrives at the shop. She explains that Shen Te has gone out of town on a short trip and quickly turns out the people hanging around.
At first, Shui Ta appears only when Shen Te is desperate. Later, Shui Ta appears more often as Shen Te is unable to keep up with the demands made on her.
Her true persona seems to be consumed by her cousin’s severity. Where Shen Te is soft, compassionate and vulnerable, Shui Ta is unemotional, practical and even vicious. It seems that only tough people like Shui Ta can survive. Very soon the small shop grows big with many employees.
One day an employee hears Shen Te crying. When he enters he finds only Shui Ta. He asks Shui Ta about Shen Te. He cannot prove where she is and is taken to court on the charge of having hidden or possibly murdered his cousin.
The townspeople become even more suspicious when they discover a bundle of Shen Te’s clothing under the desk.
During the trial, the God’s appear as judges and Shui Ta says that he will make a confession only before the judges. When everybody leaves the court room, Shen Te reveals herself to the Gods.
The Gods are now in a dilemma that their behavior had caused such circumstances for those who wish to be ‘good’. Yet they refuse to intervene directly to protect their followers.
At the end, the narrator throws the responsibility of finding a solution to the play’s problem onto the shoulders of the audience. It is for the audience to figure out how a person can possibly become good in a world that is not good. The audience will be moved to see that the current structure of society must be changed in order to resolve the problem.