A young woman from Toronto gets a teaching job at a school for kids with Tuberculosis. She meets a young girl named Mary, and becomes invested in her. Mary tells her about her friend, who has passed away from TB along with many of her peers. The school's doctor enters her classroom one day, and they discuss amending the doctor's strict guidelines for the sick students' education. The woman attends a dinner at his house, and he becomes slightly flirtatious. He gives her the key to his house, and tells her that she can come over whenever she wants to sit by the heater and read his books. She does not use the key, but continues to attend dinners with him. Eventually, they develop an intimate relationship, and the doctor promises to marry her. However, on their way to get married, the doctor decides that he can't go through with it. He puts her on the train back to Toronto, where she runs into Mary, who is returning from a basketball game. Many years later, she runs into the doctor; she has a husband and another life, but for a second she considers what it would be like to leave with him. She instead returns home to her husband.