A hungover young man strolls from a Southern railway station and into a plaza, finding the scale of it beautiful and brilliant. A woman approaches and tells him she likes his looks, and he responds by saying that she shouldn’t take money from a student such as himself. He sees that everyone in the plaza is wearing black, moving about in groups, and he finds himself tempted to calculate the volume of water in the plaza’s fountain but decides not to as his head aches. Instead, he thinks to himself that he wants to drink another beer. 

The man orders a coke rather than a beer but then changes his mind again and purchases two beers. In the plaza, a dance unfolds, but it is unclear if it is actually happening or if the man is imagining it. He notices that everyone is leaving the plaza and wonders why, but he leaves as well to sit on some stone. Everyone gathers outside, and he wonders if something is about to happen and feels happy to be sitting among them. He remembers Janice, a woman from his childhood. He imagines her hand on his forehead but remembers that she is dead. He then thinks of marriage and what he wants to do with the rest of his life; he is rather fond of this Southern town. He thinks of killing and how he once felt like killing a legless beggar on the way to his university, and he thinks of blood, stones, and the mountains.