Hamm is blind and unable to stand; Clov, his servant, is unable to sit; Nagg and Nell are his father and mother, who are legless and live in dustbins. Together they live in a room with two windows, but there may be nothing at all outside.

Sitting alone on his 69th birthday, Krapp reflects upon the last 30 years of his life as he listens to an old tape recording of himself he made on his 39th Birthday.