In the pre-civil war South, Dickie, a young boy, desperately wants some attention from his mother. He wishes he could shout at her that he loves her, and that she viewed him as more than the one-dimensional pictures in his book. Instead, she gossips with her friend Mrs. Tipton about how Black women pose a threat to couples. The two white women worry about the future, and thank god that their husbands are devoted to them. They discuss how men are animals, and that their affairs are products of their bestial behavior. Thus, Dickie's mother openly links interracial relations to bestiality. They talk at length about the infidelity in their community in the family drawing-room while their slaves attend to them. Dickie listens attentively. but he wishes his mother would see that he, a young man, is not beastly. He craves her attention. yet she continues to gossip. She asks Mrs. Tipton about the state of this year's cotton, and they discuss the annual profits. Mrs. Merill tells her friend about her visit wirh her brother Baxter at the cotton plantation. She describes his domain as a beautiful, peaceful place. She stresses how "gay" Uncle Baxter makes Dickie. Eventually, she tells her son to go get a haircut on his own. Dickie is elated to travel into town all by himself. His Mammy gives him a quarter and he feels powerful. For the first time, he feels like his own man. He jumps at this chance to have independence and the opportunity to escape the relentless and confusing chat in the house. He travels across the tracks and enters the local barbershop, where he wakes the black barber, Robert. Even in the stool, Dickie cannot escape talk of race relations. He overhears two white men reveal a big secret. They discuss how Judy Lane, a white-passing black woman, has returned to town with her new white husband. They suggest that her new northern husband does not know about her past. Then, they reveal her white father to be Dickie's own Uncle Baxter. They joke that the only white crop Baxter ever grew was cotton. Dickie is appalled to learn this information. He feels an overwhelming discomfort. How could his beloved Uncle be one of the male beasts his mother hated so? He feels sick and can barely rise out of his stool. Robert offers that he leave and return after the gentlemen leave. He gives him a penny to go get some ice cream. Dickie takes it, runs out of the shop, and contemplates how the same coin he now clutches was held by a black man first.