Sim, Retty, and Garner have just lost their mother - and their father, Mr. Welling, is unable to keep the family together by himself. He enlists the help of Mrs. Honberger and Mrs. Wale, two efficient but unsympathetic women who step in to get the house in order before the funeral. The siblings stick together as best as they can, but Mrs. Honberger and Mrs. Wale are determined to have their way. They refuse to coddle Garner, who is very young, and are determined to impose their notions of propriety on Retty and Sim, who can offer little resistance because Mr. Welling does not disagree with these judgements. Eventually, the belongings of the dead woman are being cleared out, and Retty walks in on Mrs. Honberger disparaging her late mother's possessions. All of the children's drawings and compositions had been carefully stored beside heirloom china and old photographs, along with an old-fashioned plume that is the subject of Mrs. Wale's ridicule. They are determined to throw away all this 'garbage,' but Retty stubbornly insists that she has a right to keep her mother's things, which infuriates the two women. Later, Retty weeps and wishes she looked like her mother so that none of them forget her - but Sim says that they will not forget anyway. The children are summoned inside for their meal, where they stand and listen to Mrs. Wale and Mrs. Honberger talk about how a 'good' woman would have left behind money to take care of her funeral expenses. It is implied that the objects of emotional value that their mother left behind were worthless.