Duncan Elliott's fourth wife, Cath, has just run off to Ocracoke Island with a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet named Brennan O'Donohue. In a state of depression and self-pity, Elliot takes off to New York to visit old friends.

At breakfast, Elliot, a professor emeritus at a midwestern university, meets with Jasper, a former student and friend, and complains about Cath. Elliot tries to explain that he had once fairly encouraged Cath to have an affair, though he hadn't meant it. Even if he had, he says, he had not meant for her to run off entirely. The conversation disconcerts him, however, due to the way Elliot opens up about his failed marriage and Jasper's efficient way of conversing and leaving.

At lunch, Elliot does the same thing with Marcus, an English critic and old friend. He leaves the lunch thinking Marcus an old bore and irritating, as he did not display the level of sensitivity towards Elliot's plight that he had hoped for. Back at the hotel, he lays on the bed and recalls the night that Cath went to Brennan O'Donoghue's poetry reading alone. He had been ill with a cold, and had encouraged her to go despite her hesitations, and she had disappeared a few days later.

Dinner is with Emily, Duncan's second wife, and the only amicable divorce he has had. She looks well and is kind and funny. He feels safe with her, and confesses the things he told to Jasper, about encouraging Cath to have an affair. She offers her condolences, but also sound advice— she tells him that telling Cath to have an affair was stupid and rude of him, and that Cath will likely be back after this fling.

Back at the hotel, Duncan despairs, filled with sadness and rage directed at Ocrakoke Island, where he imagines Cath and O'Donoghue running along the beach. He feels forsaken by everyone.