Nellie and her roommate Catherine get home late to their apartment in Nashville, only to be greeted by the ringing telephone. Catherine answers it, and Nellie can tell that it's Jerry, Catherine's boyfriend, who's calling because he missed their date again. Catherine tells him not to call again tonight and puts down the phone. She tells Nellie that Jerry is drunk again. Frustrated, she goes to take a bath, pleading with Nellie to deal with Jerry if he calls again. Nellie relents. The phone rings a few minutes later, and Nellie answers. Jerry asks to talk to Catherine, but Nellie insists that she cannot come to the phone, telling Jerry to go home and call again tomorrow. Nellie goes into the living room and sits down with a book to read. She is interrupted by a ring of the doorbell. They know it's Jerry even before he starts banging on the door and calling for Catherine. Catherine hurries to open the door and lets him in so that he doesn't disturb the neighbors. Inside, he tries to get Catherine to agree to marry him, though all Catherine wants to do right now is go to bed. She goes into the bedroom, convincing Nellie to stay out with Jerry until he leaves. Jerry asks Nellie if she wants a drink and she says yes, just one, so she makes them drinks, making sure to water down Jerry's. They talk for a while and then Jerry goes into the kitchen for a glass of water. A few seconds later, Nellie hears an odd sound in the kitchen and goes in to find that Jerry has cut his wrist a few times with a knife. Nellie takes the knife from him, seeing that the wounds were not very deep. Hearing the commotion, Catherine comes out to see what was going on. Nellie tells her that he only cut himself to get her attention, and they send him home. When Jerry finally leaves, the girls go into their shared bedroom to sleep, but Nellie notices that Catherine wants to stay up a little longer to talk. She doesn't like Jerry's bad behavior, but he does have a certain charm to him, and he certainly isn't boring. Then, as Nellie and Catherine finally drift off to sleep, the phone rings again.