A young woman finishes showering and sees that her purse is gone. She retraces what happened that day until the present moment. Earlier that day, she plans to take the train to return home. She is escorted to the station by Camilo, who doesn't want to let her walk alone in the pouring rain. The woman knows he is poor like her. At the railway platform after the trip, a man named Roger meets the woman and they hail a taxi. On the drive, they see strange types of people walking by, such as drunk men in short transparent raincoats arguing over love and girls. Roger tells the woman that Stella wrote to him and is coming home soon. The woman tells him that he and Stella should finally get serious. Roger compliments the woman's purse, and she tells him she got it for her birthday. She asks him how his show is going, and he reveals nothing has been sold yet, but he doesn't want to alter his performances.   When the woman arrives at her apartment, she is greeted by Bill. They drink together, and Bill reveals his play was thrown out by the director after it was almost finalized. He tells her that his wife has also been tormenting him with her financial requests and threatens to jail him if he doesn't send her ten dollars a week. He thinks she doesn’t have a right to alimony, but he still sends her money. The woman heads upstairs to her apartment afterward. She takes a letter out of her purse and opens the purse so it can dry from the rainy day. Various phrases in the letter keep catching her attention, such as "even if I could see you now I would not." She tears the letter and burns the pieces.   The next morning, a janitress examines the radiators with permission as the woman takes a bath. When the woman exits the bathroom, she notices her purse is gone. Livid, the woman goes downstairs to the basement where the janitress is tending the furnace. The woman asks her to return her purse, explaining that it doesn't have any money but is a valuable gift. The janitress swears she did not steal the purse, and the woman snarkily retorts that she should keep it if she desperately wants it. Back in her room, the woman remembers how she has never locked her doors and is proud that no one has ever stolen from her. Now, she feels like countless valuable things have been robbed from her, such as things she's broken on her own, items she left behind when moving houses, unreturned books, unspoken words she desired to hear, and dying relationships. She feels paralyzed by all these remembered losses.   The janitress comes upstairs and returns the purse. She explains she wanted to give the purse to her niece for her birthday, arguing that her niece will need to marry soon and that as grown women they should "give the younger ones a chance." The woman tells the janitress she doesn't know what she is talking about, but gives the purse back to her. The janitress, now angry, tells the woman that her niece is pretty and doesn't need such accessories, and returns the purse. The janitress leaves and says that the woman is stealing from her niece, not her. The woman later drinks coffee and muses that the only thief she should be worried about is herself, who will leave her with nothing.