A tragedy set outside the royal palace at Mycenae, some years after King Agamemnon was killed on his return from Troy. His daughter Electra lives in humiliation and grief, refusing to forget her father or accept the rule of her mother and her mother's partner. She waits for her brother Orestes, who has been far away, to return. The play studies grief, loyalty, justice and revenge, and focuses on the mind of its fierce central character more than on events.