New York City has turned into a hellscape for a piano player. Nowadays, when he sets foot in or hears mention of Bowling Green, he feels nauseous from lovesickness. He recalls the time he met Ruth, a young woman hoping to become an actress. He and his fellow band members were playing at the same hotel in which she and her husband were performing. That night, her husband had another role to play at a different hotel, so she went home with the band, consequently spending time with and growing close to the piano player. The two were nearly inseparable on the train back to the city, and by the time Ruth split from the band at Bowling Green station, the piano player had fallen in love with her. When she left, however, she gave him no means of contacting her again, and now he wallows every time he nears or hears Bowling Green.

The piano player is now at a dance, where he sees a girl fixing her hair. They flirt with each other, then spend the night kissing and dancing. Before he knows it, the piano player has fallen in love again and dreads the moment when they will have to part ways. He wants to give her everything the city has to offer, but in the morning, he returns home and pities the heartbreak he will endure. He remembers another love he once had: a young mother in the countryside. Her husband and brother-in-law had been called away, leaving her to vacation in the mountains just with her son. While the piano player took breaks after the band’s performances in the town’s casino, he often spent time with her. Though they’d only known each other for a day, the woman fell for him. The night before she was supposed to return to the city, they went out for a drive in the dark. Afterwards, the piano player was inconsolable. Sometimes, they would meet secretly in the city, sitting down on park benches or at the movies. She would ask him if he still loved her, and he would be drowning in his feelings for her. Unfortunately, she wrote to him one day and told him they could no longer see each other.

At another show with his band, the piano player found another love. They were playing before a party, and soon girls were placing their pocketbooks on his piano. When the time came for them to retrieve their purses, he noticed a girl lingering behind the crowd. He bought her food and a drink, then made pleasant conversation with her. He told her a bit about his life and she told him some of hers, mentioning how she barely made it to the dance and introducing him to her friend. After the band finished their second session for the night, the girl approached them to say goodbye. She nervously wrote her name, address, and phone number down for the piano player, then told him although they’d likely never meet again, she was happy to know him.

Now, called away to the city on family business, the piano player steps out of a train and onto Bowling Green station. He begins to panic, but when he rises out of the station and onto the street, he panics more. He’s on Southern Boulevard, the street that the girl he met last night lives on. He then remembers a similar instance of coincidence. He had been playing another show, and while standing by the piano, a woman approached him. She asked him if he remembered her, and he said he didn’t, but then realized it was a girl he had loved. Overwhelmed with anguish at his inability to stay with the women he loved, the piano player begins to cry.