This play is about what success in professional and personal life means, and how relationships may be strained or leveraged to achieve success; it also explores how what a person thinks they want changes over time.
Cathy and Andy are newlyweds, arriving in New York to pursue careers in journalism and business, respectively. Over several years, Andy's single-minded pursuit of career success sidelines Cathy, and she becomes frustrated with her role as supportive wife, allowing her little space for her own career. Andy believes he is abetted in his professional development by an older colleague, Arthur. Arthur, however, is jaded, damaged by divorce, and unable to move on either professionally or spiritually. His interest in Andy is really driven by his interest in Cathy, whom he sees as a guardian angel figure that he needs to keep close. Candace represents, perhaps, the most naked view of capitalism. Initially, she appears as an escort, an inducement from one of Andy's key clients seeking an advantageous deal. It seems that Arthur was similarly engaged earlier in his career. Discovering Andy's betrayal with Candace finally makes Cathy realise that her marriage isn't working, and she leaves Andy for a rural retreat where she can focus on her real writing passion, her first novel. As Andy climbs the corporate ladder Candace arrives in his office, reincarnated as a prospering Senior VP in the company which formerly contracted her escort services. It is Candace who has "made it", and Andy sees now that his ambition was misplaced, and that he needs to try to salvage his relationship with Cathy.
The play is structured as chapters from the bestselling (non-linear) novel Cathy has written, which is her "historical fiction" take on the lives of these four characters. As with all historical fiction, the audience may reflect on who is telling the story, what their own biases might be, and whether certain scenes really took place in the way that they are presented.
The title of the play may be interpreted in many ways: "red ink" as in a company losing money, "Ink." as a homophone for "Inc.", "red ink" as might be used by an editor on a manuscript, and "red" as a homophone for "read", which is how Cathy's novel is digested, of course.