Aphra opens on 17th century playwright Aphra Behn writing feverishly in her small, poorly furnished room. The weather is cold and bleak and she is seriously ill. It is two days before her death. The moral forces that would silence her and banish her to oblivion have never been stronger. In her agitated mind those forces have taken on form and substance in the unbending, menacing figures of Morality Man and Morality Woman, who threaten to overwhelm her. But her dearest friends, Betty Currer and Mary Betterton, are close by, ready to reassure her and nurse her through her fevers and demons.