Yvonne and Matthew, a couple in their seventies, are sitting on a porch when they observe a couple consisting of a very young woman and a senior man. Looking at them, Yvonne begins to recount how her husband Matthew had once fallen in love with a young dancer named Susanna. Nothing came out of the love that Matthew and Susanna shared because Yvonne would not let Matthew go. Her hesitancy to do so stemmed from the fact that she had endured too much (dealing with Matthew's drunken ex-wife Flossie) to even be with Matthew. One day, Matthew comes home and Yvonne realizes that the affair is over and Matthew begins a small process of grieving. Yvonne and Matthew continue to live their life traveling to Europe and even when Yvonne gets cancer, Matthew remains by her side cooking her fettuccini. In the end, Yvonne realizes that even though she is the more sickly person, Matthew is the more frail and she fights every day to survive him so he does not feel pain.