Mackie Spoon is eighteen years old when she begins to have an affair with her employer, a farmer in Texas named Call. She had been hired to help with the housework because Lila, Call's wife, was getting old and the couple didn't have any children. After two years of the affair, Mackie and Call know that Lila suspects something. However, she gets diagnosed with cancer and must stay in bed. While she cares for Lila, Mackie discovers that she is pregnant. She hopes that after Lila passes away, she can marry Call and they can have a family. One night, while tending to Lila, the dying woman asks Mackie to put a pillow over her face and end it. Mackie refuses. Shortly after this incident, Lila passes away. Call becomes grief-stricken and fires Mackie and kicks her out. She goes and finds work in many of the cafes in Texas as she raises her baby boy. Though she sees Call every now and then, it's only from a distance. Mackie waits for him to find her and apologize, and she is ready to forgive him. Then, thirty years later, they come face to face after a fire at a neighbor's house as people gather to go through the wreckage. Overcome with emotion, Mackie apologizes herself, but Call says nothing. He turns and walks away. Mackie picks up a teapot from the debris and throws it at him, which causes him to stop for a second, but he keeps on walking.