After the Fall begins with Quentin sitting center stage on a chair in a dim light. In the background is a three-level,
colorless stone tower, symbolic of the Nazi concentration camps, on which the people of his past walk in and out of his mind as he talks to himself. Quentin is, as it were, on trial, and he addresses the jury, "the Listener" or audience, in order to justify himself to himself. His monologue then becomes a dialogue with the people of his past as he seeks to alleviate his guilt over destructive relationships with two former wives.
Because the action takes place in Quentin’s mind, the episodes in act 1 are piecemeal and seemingly disconnected, but several major characters do emerge, along with distinctive periods of contemporary history. The first is Holga, an archaeologist and his prospective third wife, through whom he visits the Nazi death chambers of the late 1930’s, discovering in the process that no one is innocent. Holga has a feeling for this place and for her
mother who died there, but with a long narrative telling how she kissed an idiot child in a dream, she endeavors to convince Quentin that he must accept the past and go on.
Quentin, though he would like to become a "
separate person," is different from Holga. He lacks any feeling for the Holocaust. He cannot mourn his mother, and after two failures in marriage he is skeptical about his relationship with Holga; indeed, he cannot sign letters to her "With love." This void does not mean, however, that he is emotionally divorced from former relationships.
There are several women who cloud Quentin’s past; one is Felice, a client whose divorce he managed. He has no feeling for her, though she idolizes him. It is his first wife, Louise, who calls attention to his indifference to women, indeed his use of them as instruments to provide "a constant bath of praise." The constant quarreling between Quentin and Louise leads to flashbacks of his childhood, of his dominating mother (for whom he cannot weep), and then of other historical periods. The stock market crash of the 1920’s, followed by the Depression, when his father loses his fortune and his wife’s respect (she wants a divorce and calls him idiot) leave their mark on Quentin. It is in this context that Quentin’s mother tells him he must learn to "disappoint people. Especially women."
Another influential period is that of the McCarthy committee hearings of the 1950’s. Lou, Quentin’s professional client, has been subpoenaed; then he is betrayed by another friend, Mickey, who insists that he will "name names." In the end both are destroyed by their honesty. Quentin would like to separate himself from Lou but also finds this difficult. Lou’s book, in which he tells the truth, is symbolic of Quentin’s own effort to tell the truth about his own life, confess his guilt, and somehow be separate or free.
That life includes his affection for a needy young woman, Maggie. "I met a girl tonight," he confesses to Louise, and he leaves Louise a letter to read in an effort to "start being real." This action only serves to cause feelings of self-loathing and to separate him further from his wife. Maggie’s naivete, too, causes him discomfort, for his love for her is undercut by her inability to take care of herself.
Act 2 is a more focused act, tracing the development of the single relationship between Quentin and Maggie. In the background are his prospective wife Holga, who fears that she "may not be all that interesting," and his first wife Louise, who counters Maggie’s serious question, "What am I?" (to which Quentin replies, "You love life"), with the sarcastic answer, "The word is tart." At first Maggie sees Quentin as "a god," while he perceives her as "so beautiful" and "all love." She is naive and innocent, he "not innocent—nor good." They are married, and she becomes subservient to her husband, changing her will and her analyst.
Soon, however, Maggie becomes jealous of her husband’s relationships with other women. Though he says that he adores her, he senses that she finds little joy in life. Maggie strives to become an artist but ends up a victim of her managers and the media. At one point she demands that certain musicians be fired, and though Quentin does her bidding, he sees that her personality is changing drastically; she becomes paranoid and abusive in her language, resorting finally to pills on top of whiskey.
The relationship between Maggie and Quentin deteriorates, with her claiming that "you lost patience" and him maintaining that "we are all separate people. I have to survive too." To himself though, he admits, "I have been cruel." Finally, Quentin finds himself squeezing Maggie’s throat, thinking that it is his mother’s, and the incident leaves Maggie ironically alone—separate—shortly before the ambulance carries her away. "I loved that girl," he says, while Holga comments ambiguously, "No one is innocent they did not kill!"
In the end, Quentin seems to accept Holga’s view that one must accept one’s lack of innocence and go on, though it is not quite clear if that is possible. As the figures of his past pass in review, Quentin affirms to the Listener that, though he has failed, he can try to "love the world again." He then walks into the dark with Holga.