The scene opens with glissade, a young woman who has just arrived in Paris. She tells the audience that she has come to Paris to find a job. She has come because she wants to pursue her dream of becoming a professional dancer. She asks the audience to imagine what it would be like to be in love with someone who is not a dancer. The audience imagines what it must be like for a woman to be alone in the middle of the night. The narrator tells us that it is impossible for her to imagine a life without a lover.