A partially paralyzed man lives with his Aunt Charlotte and spends his days looking out the window of his house to observe an odd old woman. She visits his street a few times a year, mostly in October, and walks to a house near the man’s where she sits outside. The old woman sits there and everyday gets picked up by the same old man, except for one day when she is picked up by a tall man and a young boy who calls her Miss Jane. The house is an elegant, but rundown place that none of the neighbors seem to remember anything about. Aunt Charlotte is a seamstress and takes customers who come to her house to ask for different pieces. One of her customers is Mrs. Dulany who comes a few times a year to ask for new articles of clothing from Aunt Charlotte. One day, as Mrs. Dulany comes in, the man hears her telling Aunt Charlotte the history of the house down the street. Mrs. Dulany says that one of her cousin’s married a man who when he died gave his house to his sister rather than his children. The sister was a woman by the name of Anne who welcomed Mrs. Dulany into her house often. Mrs. Dulany also knew of one of their relatives named Aunt Jane who lived in the house with them. Aunt Jane never came out of her room, but she did have an affection towards one of the little children of the family named Jane also. Aunt Jane would make little balls of twine out of scraps of fabric that she had cut or found and give them to Little Jane. After Aunt Jane died, they found hundreds of the balls of twine all around her room and wardrobe. While Mrs. Dulany is telling the story, the man watches the old woman from his window as she walks towards the abandoned house, barely using her cane despite her old age. She then sits at a bench by the old house and begins rolling a ball of twine from fabric in her bag. The man thinks she looks younger in the sunlight and he is curious about why she comes to the house. After he hears Mrs. Dulany finishing her story, he thinks of the fact that this woman is called Jane and he feels that the old woman must be filled with rage. He watches as a young man comes to her and greets her. They sit for a while and then the old woman begins to cry and the two walk off together, never to be seen again by the man in the window.