Jimmy stands in the garden with his sister, Elizabeth, and admires the flowers. She is younger than him by eleven years, and it is this difference in age that makes him feel both parental and older than he is. A car pulls into the driveway, and the woman they've been waiting for has arrived; Aunt Edith, who is no biological sister of his mother but her roommate in college. Jimmy's mother is dismissive of his efforts to care for his sister, and in his Aunt Edith he finds a wonderfully sympathetic listener. In his own childish way, he is in love with her; over the course of the next few days, he does his best to impress her. Edith is wonderfully accommodating of his plans, but at all times she treats him like the son of her friend. They go on a picnic together, and she indulges his sense of importance, accepting the roses that he plucks to give to her. Jimmy has never been happier. Then, disaster strikes. After he has just woken up, Jimmy goes to the bathroom, and does not realize that it is occupied. He walks in on Edith, who is topless and horrified to see him there. Although he leaves quickly and the family passes it off as an innocent accident, Aunt Edith is not the same again. She shuts him out, focuses her affections on baby Elizabeth, and leaves two days earlier than planned.