A woman reflects on her life and decides that, when she was a child, she knew what happiness was—at least a "cruel, middle-class happiness." One year, as a child, the girl's father takes her and her mother on vacation from Rome to Salzburg for Christmas. They take the train and stop in every city in Italy, where the father buys the daughter whatever she wants so that she has all new cloaks and scarves and watches. They are not rich but her father saved up so they can act like they are. When they arrive in Verona, people stare at the girl and give her candy. She gives them a smile. At one point, her father hands her a newspaper cone full of grains. She holds it, and the birds approach her. When she is done and it begins to snow, her father picks her up and carries her. She thinks about how he loves her differently than he loves her mother. Back on the train, the mother points to the mountains out the window, and the two stare. The father comes out and tells the mother how grateful he is to love her. The child falls asleep in her mother's arms.