Anna Storm is looking forward to this particular afternoon, which—by all accounts—should be like any other afternoon when she takes a stroll down the boardwalk. Anna has been looking after her ailing mother for months now. She works from home, sewing collars for a shirt company and conducting her life uneventfully. Her mother requests that she exit the house for exercise every day. Usually, when Anna returns, she and her mother discuss what she saw that day. When the subject of women in bathing suits arises, Anna’s mother regards it with disgust. However, the reason Anna is so excited to venture to the boardwalk today is because she has secretly purchased a pair of black heeled slippers and a green swimming suit.

While her mother naps, Anna changes into the swimming suit and slips out of the house. At first, she fears being scorned for her attire, but when she blends into the masses at the beach, she’s a bit disappointed that she doesn’t stand out. Soon, she does manage to catch the gaze of the man running the shooting gallery along the boardwalk’s concession stands. Simultaneously filled with resentment that he only noticed her when she wore a bathing suit and excitement that he noticed her at all, Anna returns home. Over the coming days, she finds herself trying to gain his interest every day on her strolls. After 21 days, he finally speaks to her, but this frightens Anna so much that she runs away. Two days later, she returns—only to find out the man has been fired.

Anna’s mother soon observes her daughter’s newfound sadness and apathy and proposes that she might be sick. Ironically, a swath of rain reaches Dallas, causing Anna’s mother to fall ill. Anna enters a crisis while looking after her mother, but the woman begins getting better once the rain clears. She advises Anna to go back to the sea. As Anna is strolling along the beach, she finds the footprints of a person with a peg leg. Realizing the man at the shooting gallery also has a peg leg, she follows the prints and finds him. They speak awkwardly and shyly. The man introduces himself as Al Ring and tells Anna he has been sleeping on the beach ever since he got fired after an injury that put him in the hospital. Anna invites him to dinner, and as they walk back to her house, the surrounding pedestrians admire their odd charm.