The Violet Hour, a captivating play about love, friendship and the future is set in 1919 and centers on a young up-and-coming New York publisher, John Pace Seavering, who has enough money to print only one book. John is caught between his old friend, Denis, a very talented writer with an epic manuscript, and his secret lover Jessie, a popular black jazz singer who has written her memoirs. Both are determined to have their books published and both have what they think are life-altering reasons to see their novels in print. Adding to John's personal dilemma is the arrival of a strange machine of mysterious origin and purpose, which starts spewing out papers from books written in the future, books that contain information about the fate of John and his friends and which throw John's plans into turmoil.