In the Great Depression, jobs are nearly impossible to come by. A man looking for work and failing to find any is standing across the street from an employment agency, contemplating his opportunities, when he notices a young woman approach the building. Her clothes are worn and wrinkled, but she's astonishingly beautiful - and crying. She paces back and forth outside of the agency with the workers wanted section of the paper clenched in her hand. At last, she retreats. She pauses to ask the man if he knows where the employee agency is. Rather than direct her back to it, he tells her it's in the hotel where he knows there is a brothel - the only way, he believes, she will be able to feed and clothe herself. Resigned and understanding what he means, she nods and heads towards the brothel houses. As the man continues to travel from one city to the next looking for work, the encounter haunts him. The woman knew where the agency was, so why ask him? And she knew what the brothel was, but went willingly when he told her to. The encounter weighs guiltily on his conscience.