A dinner party is held between two households where the fathers in each family work together and both have daughters. The family that is hosting the dinner party is wealthier than their guests, and tensions arise when Polly, one of the daughters, responds with envy and dislike to spending time with the wealthier girl, Isabelle, and playing with all of her nice things. Polly thinks Isabelle is naïve and tires of her quickly. In an attempt at trying to make Isabelle feel better, Polly tells her that she wishes she could see fairies like she does. Polly then privately wishes that her father didn't have such a problem with alcohol. Isabelle falls asleep shortly thereafter and Polly sneaks out into the main room to listen to the adults. Isabelle's father is showing off a painting of a siren that he has done and Polly's father falls in love with it. Polly and her family end up taking the painting home with them, much to Polly's embarrassment. But before they can get home, the family gets in a car accident. It is a disorienting ordeal and afterwards strange things begin happening to Polly. Polly wakes up the next morning to parents who look just like hers but act very different. It is as if they have never met Polly before. They don't know her likes or dislikes and fail to engage in her parents' usual habits. All of a sudden, crows have started to bring her small treasures and pieces of rubbish as if a strange sort of repayment for something that was taken. Polly decides to run away and runs into a van of people on their way to San Francisco. She travels with them and eventually arrives in San Francisco. The story ends with Polly, now under the name Persephone, in San Francisco, struggling to make ends meet.