In a black Pittsburgh neighborhood called Homewood, an old street vendor named Lemuel Strayhorn sells ice balls to children. An older woman approaches him with her great-nieces and nephews and asks about the story behind Daddy Garbage, his old dog’s name. She herself is Geraldine French, daughter of John French, who was a good friend to Strayhorn back in the day. The dog has long since passed, and Strayhorn claims to forget his name’s origins, but Geraldine promises to come ask again. In the past, Strayhorn and a younger Daddy Garbage walk through the snow in a poor section of the neighborhood. The dog gets fixated on a trash can and knocks it over to reveal what looks like a small brown doll. When he takes a closer look, he realizes it’s actually a dead, frozen child. Shocked, he wraps the child up in his sweater and walks to the Frenches’ house, where he hopes to get the advice of their mother. She’s never liked him because she believes he influences her husband John to drink and gamble, and she turns him away. He then goes to the bar to collect John, who is also horrified by the child’s death, and together they go to where Strayhorn left the child in his house. With nothing else to do, the two decide to bury its body, but since they have to wait for dark John once again leaves to drink.  In another moment sometime later, Geraldine asks Strayhorn where her father is because  her older sister Lizabeth is about to give birth. John has been drinking, but when he arrives at the hospital his daughter is still grateful for his presence even though his crass singing embarrasses her. Back in the past, John and Strayhorn dig through the frozen ground to bury the child. The two say a few words over the grave, and gently lower the dead body into the hole.