A writer and investigator of a welfare department in the 1960s cannot find his story the day its magazine issue is published, the Partisan Review issue of winter 1965. He does not receive a response after calling his editor and considers heading to the office to ask about the story. He shuts the idea down, feeling embarrassed to confront the literary professionals. He writes a letter to the editor and checks his mailbox every day for two weeks but still receives no response.   Feeling motivated to write more, the man routinely wakes up at 5 A.M. to work on his stories before he clocks in at work at 9 A.M. His bus does not appear when he leaves to go home, so he decides to eat a late lunch and walk home. As he eats his meal miserably, he begins to doubt the purpose of his writing. A girl he likes enters the restaurant with another man, and he remembers the conversations they've had about literature and traveling and their kiss on the last evening he saw her. She introduces him to her fiancée, and the three have a drink together.   When he gets home, he finds a handwritten letter apologizing for the unpublished story and an invitation to call the number. Though skeptical, the writer calls, and a mysterious woman asks to meet with him. They meet at a nearby café later that night, where she states she liked his story but doubts the magazine will publish it. She reveals she used to be an assistant for the publisher until he replaced her. When the writer presses further about why his story was not published, she admits she only met with him to offer sympathy for his unpublished story. Before she takes a cab home, she tells him she is single. Afterward, the writer spends a lonely rest of the night at home and thinks of calling the assistant he just met with, visualizing a romantic future together. He also thinks of his "playboy" neighbor who brings many girls over on late nights.   Around midnight, he hears a knock at his door; it's the neighbor. He informs the writer he is moving for work and is subletting his apartment for a year. The writer asks where he is moving, and the neighbor tells him he is going uptown to work for publishing. The writer offers to send him his novel, and the neighbor invites him to have lunch together soon. Before bed, the writer reflects on the choices and events that could happen in his life. He imagines adopting several cats, receiving a promotion at work, and even dying in front of his office, musing that the editor would probably publish his story and boast of his abilities as a writer.