Karen Washington finds a picture of her husband Roger with his deceased brother and an unknown woman hidden on the top shelf of his shirt closet. When she leaves it out for him to find, it prompts a reminiscence of his eccentric, troubled, sickly brother Richard, who had died of a heart attack two months before their wedding. The brothers were both Southern and had graduated high school in 1943 despite an age difference, because of Richard's debilitating, life-long heart condition. They went to Harvard that July, with Richard graduating with a degree in Greek and Roger in economics. The pair had always been isolated, but they became very close in those years and spent all their time together. They made politically incorrect jokes and shared inside jokes with exaggerated Southern accents. Once, this led to someone putting a swastika in chalk on their door, which they found hilarious. After undergrad, they grew apart. Roger went straight to law school and then moved to San Francisco, where he became a sought-after lawyer and bachelor embedded in the merchant upper class. Richard stayed home for a while due to his condition, but eventually earned a graduate degree in Greek and settled into teaching in San Francisco. Richard became increasingly pained from his condition and eccentric, constantly revisiting the good old days of Harvard. He took up with the volatile and eccentric woman in the photograph, Ellen, whose mother had thrown herself in front of a train when Ellen was young. Roger is always busy and misses his own parent's funeral. Their parents leave them each half of their land, which Roger sells right away to earn $30,000, but which Richard holds onto and eventually sells for $100,000. The photograph that prompted these memories was taken at a fancy restaurant in celebration of this sale. Roger later asks to borrow money to finance the purchase of property at Lake Tahoe and he offers Richard interest on the loan. The offer hurts Richard's feelings, but he loans the money without interest. By this point, the brother's relationship exists mostly in brief phone calls. Roger eventually decides to marry Karen and settle down. At the engagement party, Richard uncouthly mentions the swastika incident and then leaves the party. He dies of a heart attack at the Mount Zion hospital with Ellen and Roger by his side. Ellen and Roger have a pleasant coffee afterward, but Ellen later calls Roger and blames him for mistreating Richard. She has a mental breakdown and is said to have been hospitalized. After reminiscing over a home-cooked meal, Roger and his wife reflect on that conversation.