A play within a performance art project. In 1988, Jean, a white female performance artist, hopes Harold, an African American actor, will play Thomas Jefferson in her project she plans to tour. Harold hates Jefferson but becomes intrigued as he 'hears' more and more from Jefferson who 'appears' on another platform of Jean's 'spiral of time', deciding, at the end of his life, what to keep and what to burn of his letters and writings . On a third level of the spiral of time, one actress playing three generations of Jefferson's female descendants by his wife Martha, reads from their actual letters and writings. A dialogue across time ensues.. In the 'basement' of the spiral joining Jean and Harold, is Arthur, a dress designer, who provides comic releif as he participates in 'improvised' scenes using puppets and fabric. As the three 1988 characters argue while sticking to the facts, an alternative story emerges of who the real father of Sally Hemings' children might have been. Original score by Richard Robeson blends classical music with ominous drumming. The spiral staircase set piece, created by Thomas Traut, embodies the theme Jean espouses that time is neither linear nor pendular but moves in an upward spiral.