Jessica Packard lives by the coast, having lost her husband Izaak. Her grief is compounded by the loss of her children at a very young age, and she is constantly faced with the knowledge that her line will end at her death. The property she lives on is valuable, and the family tradition has always been to pass it on to a male heir. Her growing awareness of mortality causes her to contact her nephews, Mark and Abel, requesting them to visit so that they can discuss these matters face-to-face. Mark and Abel used to spend summers in their childhood with their aunt and uncle, but they have not visited in ten years. They arrive with some trepidation, wondering if their aunt will forgive this long absence - but almost instantly, their guilt is replaced by greed for the property. Having arrived, they are beset by memories of their childhood by the sea. Abel thinks about his wife Celia, but his desire for her is slowly replaced by thoughts of Angelina, who is the wife of Jessica's gardener. She is exceedingly beautiful and has a child that was not fathered by her aged husband. Jessica asks Abel if he is the father, because the two were playmates in their youth. Abel looks into his aunt's eyes, and he sees a curious foreknowledge there - she knows who the father is but is going through the motions anyway. After some thought, he denies it, and with finality, Jessica reveals that their deceased uncle Izaak is the father of that child. Because he is a male relative, Jessica has decided to leave the property to the boy. She condemns Izaak for his weakness, even as she fools herself into seeing reflections of her own deceased son in the child’s mannerisms. Abel is distressed at this news; he feels the curtains coming down on his childhood at this rejection from a place and a woman that he had not bothered to visit in all these years. He thinks also of his two daughters, who, by virtue of being female, have been robbed of a certain kind of childhood.