Set in a bedsit flat in a large rooming house, Harold Pinter's The Room opens with the protagonist, sixty-year-old Rose Hudd, cooking bacon and eggs for her husband, Bert, before he goes out to drive his van for work. Without responses from Bert, who reads a magazine, Rose talks about how cold and dark it is outside. She appreciates the warmth and light of their room, which is preferable to the house's damp basement. Rose moves uneasily about the room, as if unable to stay still.
The elderly landlord, Mr. Kidd, stops by to check that there isn't any issue with the pipes freezing. Kidd asks about when Bert is going out; Rose answers for him. Kidd shows signs of a compromised memory, claiming he can't remember how many floors the house has and inventing a sister who helped him run the place before she died.
After Kidd and then Bert exit, Rose takes out the rubbish to find a young couple, Mr. and Mrs. Sands, standing outside her door. She invites the couple in to warm up and learns they have come to speak with the landlord. The couple are polite to Rose but also bicker openly, as though she isn't there. They say that they went to the dark basement and a man's voice told them room number seven was available for rent. Rose is unnerved because that is her room.
After the Sands leave, Kidd returns. He doesn't know what Rose is talking about when she mentions the young couple or the idea that her room is available for rent. Kidd explains that there is a man who has been waiting in the basement all weekend to deliver a message to her; the man has been eager to know when Bert would be out so he can speak with Rose. Reluctantly, Rose tells Kidd to bring the stranger up, worried he might visit her when Bert is home if she doesn't see him now.
Kidd exits. Soon Riley, a blind Black man, enters. Rose tells him she doesn't know him and he doesn't know her, so she can't imagine what he has come to tell her. Riley begins referring to Rose as "Sal" and reveals that he has brought a message from her father that it is time to come home. Rose is unnerved and tries to reject what Riley is saying. However, Riley grows insistent, switching from saying her father wants her to come home to saying that he himself wants her to come home. He also says he wants to touch her. Eventually, Rose touches Riley's face tenderly.
Bert arrives home, catching Rose and Riley in their intimate moment. Not addressing the spectacle he has stumbled into, Bert speaks for the first time in the play, delivering a monologue about how well he drove on the icy roads; he speaks of his van as though it is a woman he had sex with. Bert then tips Riley out of his chair. Riley tries to say something about Rose, but Bert shouts "Lice!" and strikes Riley down, kicking his head against the stove until Riley lies inert, possibly dead. The play ends with Rose saying, "Can't see. I can't see. I can't see."
