Every Sunday morning around 11 a.m., Miss McParland arrives at the glass basement door of Number 3, Horkimer Terrace and flaps her wooden glove against the glass instead of ringing the doorbell, which would alert the whole house. Charlotte, the house's servant, rushes to the door instantly and tells Miss McParland, who she calls Lizzie, that her boss, who they simply call "She," is gone. Lizzie walks slowly through the dark passageway and says she’s late because of her rheumatism today and asks if she can take off her shoes to soak in hot soda water. Charlotte soaks Lizzie’s feet and Charlotte tells her she likes her home when She’s out and can do what she wants in her kitchen. Lizzie wonders what Charlotte’s mother would have said if she saw her daughter working in service to another.  Charlotte tells Lizzie she’s making an extra pumpkin pie today and when a truck passes by the window they both hold their breath until determining She is still at The Temple of the Master, where She performs breathing exercises instead of worshiping God. Charlotte tells Lizzie how last Tuesday She had welcomed guests over for tea and Charlotte had baked little cakes and chicken sandwiches and then She had taken credit for all her work. Charlotte says she would leave if it wasn’t for her plants. The party suddenly turns from laughter to complete silence and when Charlotte eats a meringue it turns to ashes in her mouth. She begins to feel nervous and walks quietly upstairs and saw all the women on the floor praying in front of a “Hindoo fortune teller.” Charlotte tells Lizzie that when she’d caught a look at the man and that she thought he was the Savior. Lizzie grows angry and tells her not to tell anyone. The man had opened up the chicken sandwich and when he saw that it had meat he returned it to the plate and the rest of the party followed suit and She hasn’t touched meat since.  Charlotte says She stopped going to church and has began going to the man’s house every Sunday instead. Charlotte shows Lizzie the scripture that they repeat about mortality. The words touch Lizzie and she thinks about how she’s lost herself over the years and how she wishes Charlotte would call her Elizabeth, not Lizzie. Lizzie believes this is why she’s grown old and developed rheumatism. She remembers how Uncle Jim had corrected Charlotte and told Lizzie not to let anyone call her by her nickname. They reminisce about the activities they used to be able to do and wish they could return to their younger selves. Lizzie begins to cry with loneliness and says she envies Charlotte for having had a husband and a child, even though they’ve since died. Lizzie wishes she’d had a girl who she would have named Elizabeth and taught her china painting and she tells Charlotte she wants to leave. Charlotte wraps up some pie for the road and Lizzie asks to keep the religious text to read over and over again and cry.