A fifty-year-old man named Carson feels very sick while on the plane. He thinks that the freeze-dried peanuts that the stewardess gave him may have upset his stomach. Carson is a divorced man who used to work as a math teacher. However, he became bored with the same route to school each day and now works as a sales representative for a New Jersey company that manufactures computers. He has never visited the city before. Carson first blames the peanuts for his stomach pain, but then blames the whiskey sour. He also thinks about how he got the center seat of the plane and feels very claustrophobic. He also finds his job very tedious.

After the flight lands, Carson waits for his taxi. He feels extremely nauseous and his surroundings only exacerbate it. The hotel that he arrives at has many colors and it only makes him feel dizzy. When he arrives to his room, Carson calls the company and clients he is supposed to meet with and makes two back-to-back appointments. The secretary is very sympathetic to his situation. After his calls, Carson goes to the lobby to get some medicine, which tastes chalky and doesn't help him feel better. He goes to his room and lies on the floor of the bathroom, which is cold, and observes the room. He falls asleep and then wakes up to see that people aren't outside his window and that he is still feeling sick.

The lobby recommends a nearby emergency clinic, which he goes to. The hospital is much farther than he expects. Initially, he hopes that as soon as he walks through the door, someone will help him. However, he has to fill out forms and wait for awhile. The first doctor he sees explains that he is about to go to an evening party. The doctor also examines him and then Carson has blood tests and x-rays performed.

In his hospital room, he waits for his results and watches the other patients around him--two men sing the blues, another man throws up, and another patient has a tube up their nose. Another doctor arrives and says that he may have issues with his appendix. They want to operate on him as soon as possible. The prep and surgery seem to go by in a blur and when he wakes up, the doctor explains that his appendix was too big. Carson gets moved around to different rooms. In his first room, the other patient doesn't seem to talk to him and smokes a lot, which reminds Carson of his ex-wife who also did that. When Carson goes to sleep and wakes up, he is in a room by himself. His abdomen is sore but he has a clearer head.

Carson remembers how when he was a kid, children in his classroom used to be so excited about getting their appendix removed, but Carson was always afraid of getting appendicitis. His scar was very gory, unlike the ones the children had. A surgeon enters his room and gives him instructions about walking and using the restroom. Another nurse, a Slavic woman, changes his dressing and he gets upset that she is too hard with it.

Carson thinks about how his son recently went to Mexico and that is daughter refuses to talk to him. He then notices the printer that the hospital uses and how much he enjoys his life at the hospital. Everything he sees is very clean and organized.

Carson spends some time watching the TV play baseball channels and then falls asleep. When he wakes up, a young African American nurse takes his blood pressure and temperature. He finds the nurse very beautiful and is able to make small talk, but he never sees her again after.

The surgeon returns the next day and encourages Carson to walk in order to help with his healing and recovery. Carson dislikes that he has to walk around with the IV pole, but soon he enjoys the routes he takes. He likes the windows and becomes very curious about watching the city through the window. He also observes the other patients that he passes by--people who were recently out of surgery and others who are very old and sick. He also starts eating solid food again and feels great joy in his hospital stay.

One day, Carson answers all of his phone calls and appointments for his job. The secretary comes to visit him in person and he also answers calls from his ex-wife and son, but not his daughter. Soon, he becomes quite homesick because he misses walking up and down the stairs.

When Carson is finally released from the hospital, he takes a taxi to the airport. He notices silhouettes of people and reminisces on his time at the hospital. He thinks about how much he learned about the city and its people, all from the window of his hospital room.