Two grandchildren, a brother and sister, visit their grandparents in Shelby County, Iowa, and ask their grandfather about Plummer Tavern. The tavern was owned by their great-great grandfather, Levi Plummer, though the grandchildren don't trust their grandfather's account of it. He tells them about seeing a stagecoach driven by a man named Bannister Brailey. The stagecoach would stop at the tavern and swap horses before continuing. The tavern, he says, was a magnificent building with walnut fixings and a two-story room with a balcony. Fascinated by this the grandkids drive one hundred and fifty miles to where the tavern should be, but they don't find it. When they tell their grandfather this, he says that it's probably changed, since that was about seventy years ago. The grandchildren also interview the living daughter of Bannister Brailey, who denies that her father ever drove a stagecoach. When questioned about this, the grandfather says that he is pretty sure the driver was Bannister, but that he could be wrong. The children suspect that their grandfather is mixing up some details from a different story, though he's convinced himself that his account is the truth. To learn more, the grandchildren return to their great-great grandfather's land and interview an eighty-eight year old woman who lived next to Levi Plummer. She describes him as a brutal man with twelve devilish children. She also says that the tavern wasn't really a tavern since they never had enough room for guests. The grandchildren bring this information back to their grandfather, and he suspects that the old woman was incorrect. One of the grandchildren calculates her grandfather's age, realizing that he was only two years old when his family moved to Shelby County, despite claiming to remember many details from before that. They verify his age in the family bible. The grandfather gets upset. He admits that he might have been wrong, conflating stories he had heard as a child with the things he himself witnessed. He suspects that there are two accounts of Levi Plummer, the one from the old woman who only knew Levi when he was a sick old man, and the one that he had heard from his mother, who knew Levi when he was strong and well. The grandfather hopes that he will be remembered as well and strong, rather than as the limping old man that he has become. He finally concedes that his memory is flawed, but he is certain that his memory of the stagecoach is absolutely true.