Janey is a young deaf woman living in the shadow of her controlling mother in the small Southern town of Riverview. She lost her hearing at the age of ten, and though she briefly attended school for the deaf her mother sent for her when her father died three years later and never let her return. Ever since she has kept house on her mother’s orders, not permitted to leave or run errands unless asked. Janey’s mother takes in a boarder, a young Mr. Clark travelling through towns taking pictures for the WPA. Mr. Clark can sign, and he offers to take Janie along with him as a guide on his day trips to surrounding areas. Her mother refuses, insisting she needs Janey for help with housework, but Janey asserts that she wants to go and leaves the room, cutting off her mother’s rebuke. She enjoys the novelty of Mr. Clark’s work but her mother lures her back, claiming she’s ill. On Mr. Clark’s last night Janey knocks on his door at 11:30, and he lets her in. He tells her that his own mother was deaf, that his father was abusive, and when she ran away with her son he came after her and killed her. Mr. Clark says he owes a debt to her and needs to pay it back to someone. The next morning, Janey finds Mr. Clark gone and her mother dead.