In a rundown, mostly abandoned hotel in South America, Jeff Brenn seems to be the only resident. He passes time in the bar on the first floor served by Wek, the bartender. Tropical heat seeps through the building, and mice scurry along the floors. Jeff and Wek make whimsical conversation about the dinner menu for that night and the mice. Sometimes, Jeff is not sure if he just imagined that they spoke and imagined there were mice. They argue about the tourists, and Wek jabs at Jeff for humoring them so much and never going to his office when they arrive. Jeff dismisses Wek’s worries about his company in the States, bragging about how he trained them specifically to make money without him there. Their conversation shifts, and Jeff starts to inquire about a pretty blonde girl with a yellow dress and asks Wek if she has come in recently. He recounts how she would come into the hotel and play piano loudly all night, and he would hear somebody calling him from across the river and go outside. Dinner is served, and Jeff decides to eat later and heads up to his room. He wakes up a little past midnight and leaves the hotel. While strolling through the streets, he is startled to hear a brief tinkling sound from a building behind him. He imagines all sorts of scenarios about how the sound was produced. A rat scurries past his feet, and he ponders how things both are and are not what you imagine. Jeff begins to recall the day the girl in the yellow dress came to play piano. Before she left, Jeff asks Wek who she was, but he does not know. Later that night, he tips the porter who brought dinner and asks him to send a girl up to his room, only to have Wek send her away right after he meets her. He and Wek speak about the overwhelming tropical weather again, and Jeff asks Wek about where the piano girl is, but Wek, again, does not know and pours Jeff another drink. He grows angry at Wek and rushes up the stairs of the hotel, only to see the same rat awaiting him. The rat is always just out of his reach before disappearing into a small hole in the wall. Jeff kicks and beats the wall, and Wek comes to check up on him.  Snapping back to the present, Jeff decides it is time to walk back to the hotel. He feels very weak and very, very old. Jeff thinks to himself that Wek, his anchor, is always right.