A man on a boat meets another man named Mr. Levine who is in the silk business. Levine asks the man’s business and he is hesitant to tell him. Mr. Levine finds out that he is a writer and says that he shouldn’t be ashamed of being a writer and that he has a writer in his family. The man knows that Levine is going to tell him his life story so he sits down with him and listens to Levine begin to speak. Mr. Levine is from Russia and immigrates to America with his friend Kantrowitz. Both of them are in the silk business and are competitors at times, but overall they are friendly with each other. Kantrowitz has two sons, the older one is exactly like his father and goes into the business with him. The younger one, Izzy, is a poet and at thirteen he writes a poem called “Indian Wind” that is published in the local paper. Kantrowitz hangs up the poem and begins to brag about his son’s ability. However, as the son grows older he still only writes poetry and begins to read his poems to Levine’s daughter, Margaret. Kantrowitz becomes worried about Izzy and says that he has no interest in joining the family business, but only wants to write poetry. This is a great source of shame for Kantrowitz and he goes to Levine’s office often and cries about his son. Levine thinks it may be Kantorwitz’s fault because he hung up the poem from his son and inflated his ego. Levine catches Izzy reading poetry to Margaret often and eventually he tells Izzy that he can’t do that anymore and that he has to go make something of himself. Margaret gets mad at her father. One day Kantrowitz comes in and tells Levine that Izzy has decided to join the family business and has given up poetry. Margaret is heart broken and Izzy leaves to become a salesman. Eventually the older Kantrowitz brother leaves and starts his own silk company and Izzy becomes a partner to his father. Izzy feels a relatively new type of silk to the industry and names it Indian Wind which becomes a craze and a must-have among silk wearers. The Kantrowitzs become very successful and eventually Izzy returns to Margaret and the two of them get married suddenly. One day, Levine gets a call from Kantrowitz who says that Izzy hasn’t been in the office for three days and he asks Levine to check in on Izzy and Margaret. Levine goes to their house and finds them reading stacks of books of poetry and Levine is afraid that Izzy has once again taken up poetry. However, he soon realizes that the two of them are looking in the poetry books for something to call a new type of silk that they want to sell. Then, Levine realizes that there is a business for poetry as long as it’s tied to something else.