Hugh Mullin is a vagrant seaman who, at the whim of his emotions, often travels ashore seeking an ineffable awareness. Hugh travels through a forest and meadow in search of shelter and water. Having stumbled across a fresh stream, Hugh drinks from the cold spring and is interrupted by a young girl of about 12 to 14 years of age who introduces herself as Jan. Hugh, annoyed by Jan’s presence, dismisses her, but wakes up the next morning to her tauntingly overhead. Jan invites Hugh to her house for breakfast. Hugh, expecting Jan’s house to really be Jan’s parents’ house, travels with her to a small, but carefully constructed structure set in the hills a short distance from the stream. Jan’s house recalls for Hugh the memory of a tree house he had built when he was younger. 

Jan explains to Hugh why and how she and a friend, Kathy Gibson, built the house to visit during the weekends and that her parents are not often around, which is why she can spend so much time in the forrest and meadows. Jan explains that her Aunt Edna is her guardian, but that even she is usually disinterested; obsessed by her cats. Jan later asks Hugh to play house with her. Hugh, stumped by already playing at life, defenselessly agrees, and over the course of the next few days, stays in the house whittling, eagerly anticipating Jan’s return from school. One day, Hugh catches and cooks a squirrel for him and Jan. A naive Jan comments on how she wishes Hugh would play house better, that she much prefers the way her father gives her mother money to go out and buy food. Hugh reminds Jan that their situation forecloses any chance of doing such a thing and that the animals her mother cooks from the store have to be killed and processed just like the squirrel they eat. 

After a few days of not seeing Jan, a worried Hugh visits a local grocery store to purchase food items and perhaps see Jan. Jan soon returns to the house in the hills, sharing with Hugh that she had been sick for the past 2 days and that soon she would have to stop coming down because of the weather. Jan falls asleep on Hugh’s lap. Hugh hears someone in the distance, growing closer, shouting Jan’s name; knowing his presence to be unsettling, Hugh gently positions Jan’s head on the soft brush, packs his duffel bag and heads towards the road.