A young college student living with his parents in New York City gets off the subway and walks four blocks home every afternoon. As he walks, he sees a young woman with a green scarf standing on her stoop every day, and over time he falls in love with her. One day in November, he decides to attempt to contact her by leaving a letter with a poem on the stairs below her. The following day, she leaves him a note in reply, saying that though she is grateful for his affections, her ill father has seen the student through the window and is not happy. They are moving tomorrow, but the student should not write again or try to inquire after them. This causes the student to fall into an uneasy state. The next day, he leaves class early and goes to the woman's apartment to ask for her and her father's names, but the landlady won't tell him. He begins traveling the subway, hoping he'll get a hunch telling him where the woman lives. He calls his parents and tells them he's staying at his friend's house, and continues searching through the night. After many hours searching and many miles traveled, the student begins seeing the young woman around him signaling to him how to find her, but they are always figments of his imagination. He slept for a few hours before morning commuters woke him up. After going to a park for a few hours, the student rides the subways again until he runs out of money. He decides to go home, thinking it best to have his father, a doctor, make sure he doesn't have a fever before continuing on his search. As he walks past the woman's stoop again, he sees her — for real this time — and she comes down the steps to speak with him. She tells him that she had come back yesterday to see him but he wasn't there, which worried her, so she came back again today. She says that she can show him her new home, but not today, since he needs to go home to rest and recover. She hands him a slip of paper and gives him her green scarf, then rings the student's doorbell and runs away. The student's mother answers and brings him inside. She had worried about him but is glad he's alright. The student, excited about the note in his promising pocket, collapses on the couch and finally gets some rest.