Plot

Sadistic theatre critic Fitzgerald Fortune buys a gift for his wife Esther's birthday: a player piano that has the power to reveal the souls of all who hear it play. He then uses it to provide "entertainment" for her birthday party.

Theater critic Fitzgerald Fortune is looking to buy a different sort of gift for his wife's birthday. In a curio shop, he buys an old player-piano. It's delivered to his home, and when he starts it up, it has a strange effect on his manservant, a normally dour man who breaks into mirthful laughter. When he plays another song, this time for a guest, the man breaks down and admits he's in love with Fortune's wife Esther. He decides to have fun with his party guests that evening but Esther decides to turn the tables on him.—garykmcd

Fitzgerald Fortune (Barry Morse) is a thoroughly snobbish and arrogant theater critic who only respects people who are misanthropes. He buys an old player piano for his wife Esther (Joan Hackett), and quickly finds that the music it plays brings out the "hidden, true persona" of specific individuals. One music cue brings out unexpected joviality in Fortune's much-abused manservant Marvin, while another forces Esther to confess to her hatred of her husband because of his abusive personality; with yet another cue Fortune forces Greg Walker (Don Durant), a playright friend, to confess to an affair with Esther, while Fortune uses yet another cue to make Marge Moore (Muriel Landers), a heavyset lady friend of Esther's, embarass herself by revealing her private inner-self and then dancing. In the end, however, it is Fitzgerald Fortune who has the most to hide.