Prudence, a young fourteen year old girl at an all-girl boarding school in the Swiss Alps, discovers that she has, “direct contact with God” that conferred upon her a special power. One day, while the girls played volleyball outside, Prudence, having begged to sit out, shares with her roommate Marjorie that she has a special relationship with God. Marjorie, snidely incredulous, remarks that Prudence is oddball and, “just plain crazy,” and Prudence sinks into a reverie where the mountain in front of her becomes the face of a glassy-eyed man, calling out her name. 

With the girls having finished the volleyball match, Prudence is left on the field in her dream-like state and is roused from her vision by Miss Elfrieda who can tell that Prudence is in perplexing rumination. She leads Prudence back to cafeteria where after lunch is served, she goes to the study hall to write her mother a letter. While writing, and having nothing really to say to her mother, she falls asleep again. This time, she is roused by another student who tells her that she has a visitor in the library—an uncommon occurrence. Prudence trepidatiously ventures into the library and discovers her mother looking out of the window at the mountains. They exchange hollow pleasantries, her mother inquiring as to how she’s been and how much she’s been eating, noting how thin Prudence is, “playing at her notion of motherhood.” She shares that she’s taken on a new lover, having moved from Palermo to London, and resultantly, that Prudence won’t be able to come and visit during the upcoming holiday. Prudence graciously understands and her mother gives her a gift. 

Her mother leaves, and Prudence watches as the car winds down the mountain. As she looks on at the car, she whispers, “Now, now, now,” willing an avalanche to fall over the mountain and kill her mother. At that moment, Miss Elfrieda enters the library and leads Prudence, against her protests, to the nurses office for a checkup she had missed earlier in the day where she sulks in the gravity of what she had just done, what she had just wished, overcome by the bright whiteness of the nurse’s office.