Miss Mindenhart—a young, poor, single woman with a taste for the flamboyant—and Mrs. Haxton—the middle-aged, secretly Buddhist wife of an insurance agent—could not be more different. Leading their respective entourages of lawyers, family, and hangers-on into a confrontation outside their town's courthouse, then, makes for a ridiculous picture. As Mindenhart rages, Haxton does her best to remain calm.

The two have just been in a car accident, and both were distracted while driving; Mindenhart was eating and Haxton was meditating. At first, they both react calmly, but by the time Haxton's husband calls Mindenhart to work out the finances that night, the younger woman's view of things have changed. She draws on her lifelong fascination with class warfare and communism, and soon she unconsciously transforms the accident into a symbolic abuse of the poor by the rich. She refuses to pay a cent.

During the next few weeks, Mindenhart's calls to the Haxtons become near-constant, and she alternately offers friendship and (often anti-Semitic) insults. Their dispute ends up in court.

The court adjourns before their cases can be heard, and both parties come back outside. Mindenhart explodes in rage, while Mrs. Haxton remains calm and smiles placidly. This is simply too much for her opponent, who promptly drives her hefty handbag through Mrs. Haxton's eye in a farcical death blow.