The seventy-eight-year-old Mr. Mason works in a Cleveland office building as an elevator operator. Although his memory is fading and has a crippled leg, he has a full head of hair and wears a fresh rose every day, and feels relatively youthful standing in the elevator all day. He is single, but his friend Mr. Janapolis, a younger coworker who grows the roses in his garden, keeps Mr. Mason company. They eat and talk together during their breaks at work, though that's the extent of their relationship. One summer, although it is unusually hot and older people around the city are falling ill, Mr. Mason stays as lively as ever. Mr. Janapolis tells him that this year's roses are having some trouble due to a blight. One day, Mr. Janapolis doesn't show up to work at all. Mr. Mason's elevator passengers notice the absence of his rose. A few days later, Mr. Janapolis returns to work, but he is not looking well. He dies shortly after in a procedure meant to excise the cancer from his body. Mr. Mason keeps the last rose his friend gave him for a few days until it wilts and dies. With the loss of his friend, he begins to feel much more lonely and weak. He has to sit down on his stool. He breaks down in the elevator, mourning as much for Mr. Janapolis as he is for himself.