A wary husband reluctantly allows an old, blind friend of his wife’s to visit their home, prompting an unlikely connection between the two men.

Deaf protagonist Janie and her controlling mother are visited by a travelling documentarian working for the WPA, who brings Janie along on his work days against her mother’s will and confides in Janie about his own mother who was deaf and killed by his abusive father. The morning after Mr. Clark’s departure, Janie finds her mother dead.

Protagonist Rose McGworski is a young mother abandoned by her husband but with a passion for bingo and her young son. She glows with pride when the child psychologist informs her that her son must be sent to a school for slow learners, mistakenly believing he’s going there to teach.