Joan Maple, the wife of Richard Maple and a mother of four in Boston, becomes revitalized by the Civil Rights movement. While she travels to Alabama and engages in activism in her local community, Richard is forced to pick up extra responsibilities, which makes him slightly bitter. Nonetheless, he knows that this cause is important to her, so he tries his best to support her. When a protest is planned in Boston, Richard agrees to attend with Joan. The day of the march, however, he wakes up with a fever. Joan says that he can stay home, but Richard feels that going is an obligation to their marriage as much as it is to his wife. At the march, Richard is drawn to a peanut stand, which makes him feel like he's at a carnival rather than a political protest. They run into Joan's former psychiatrist and make small talk. Feeling more comfortable in a group, Joan and Richard gather with the psychiatrist's sister, teenage niece, and the niece's friend, who is there to study it for a term paper. Richard feels an odd desire to seduce the psychiatrist's sister, but he doesn't act on these feelings. When the march begins, Richard and Joan get split up in the sea of people. Richard gravitates towards Carol, the niece's friend, feeling a paternal sense of compassion for her. When he looks through the crowd and sees his wife, he thinks she looks confident and beautiful. An already-cold day becomes miserable when it starts to rain, but Joan wants to stay until the end in order to hear Martin Luther King Jr. speak. Richard complains that she's already heard him in Alabama, but Joan insists that they stay. On the drive home, Richard begins to mock the accent of the Black speakers and protesters. The poor weather, his fever, and the rift that the Civil Rights movement has caused in his relationship with his wife compound into a state of delirium in which Richard continues to speak in a mocking accent even after he is tucked in bed at home.