On a muggy summer day in a Southern town, a wealthy businessman named Abercrombie visits his childhood home. He contemplates the years before he made his fortune in New York. A local man, Hemmick, comes by the house to retrieve something he forgot when his family recently moved out. He works a menial job at an ice cannery. Abercrombie greets the man, and they strike up a conversation about the area. Hemmick remarks that he’d planned to leave when he was young, but he didn’t-- all because of a penny. Years ago, he was a runner for the bank while he saved up to move to Cincinnati. A teller had recently been caught stealing, so the vice president was extremely strict. One day, Hemmick collected a deposit from a customer’s house. On the way back to the bank, he realized that a penny fell out of a hole in his pocket. It was a hot day, and he was almost delirious with exhaustion as he retraced his steps trying to find the coin. He could’ve asked anyone on the street for a penny, but he didn’t think of it in his overheated daze. When he returned to work, the bank VP fired him for dishonesty. This news quickly circulated in the small town, and Hemmick couldn’t find other employment. Eventually, he married and had children, and his dreams of moving up North faded. Abercrombie responds with his own story. He was laidback as a young man and had never planned to leave. One summer day, he saw a sign advertising train tickets to Atlanta. He was a penny short, but he spied one on the ground. Abercrombie promptly paid his fare and left the town in the dust. As their cigars fade with the sunset, the two men think about how easily things could have turned out differently.