The play begins when Willy comes home exhausted from a failed trip with his mind full of tensions and worries. He constantly compares himself to another salesman, Dave Singleton, who led a successful career and when he died, many people came to bid him farewell. Although Willy has worked as a salesman for almost thirty years, yet he has not achieved the real level of success that would allow him to stop tiring himself and afford the household expenditures that swallow his diminishing wages.

The play features Willy Lowman, living in New York City with his wife, Linda.