An elegant dinner party at the London home of Mike Schofield, a wealthy stockbroker trying to prove his cultural sophistication. Characters:

Pratt begins his "performance," smelling and tasting the wine with agonizing precision. To Schofield's growing dread, Pratt identifies the district, the commune, and finally the exact vineyard and year. He has won.

However, during this particular evening, the stakes escalate dramatically. Mike serves a rare, obscure claret from a small vineyard in Bordeaux. Confident that Pratt cannot name it, Mike agrees to a bet that defies reason: if Pratt identifies the wine, he wins the hand of Mike’s daughter, Louise, in marriage. If he fails, he forfeits his two houses. Themes and Irony