A young woman named Ellen Dick is walking through the woods hunting for a turkey. Unknowingly, she crosses into land owned by a different person. The man who owns the land, Andrew Taboney, walks up on her and lets her know it is his land. Ellen says she lives about two miles away and has never seen Andrew before. They continue walking through the woods together until they arrive at Andrew's home. Ellen enters the home and hears and sees bees and is told by Andrew that they live in the walls. Andrew tells Ellen that she seems very smart and nice and that any man would be lucky to have her around. She decides to stay with him, even after her old husband, Searls, comes to Andrew's home and begs Ellen to come back. Ellen becomes accompanied to living with Andrew, who is a lifelong bachelor and has a childlike, carefree demeanor. The house is not kept in perfect condition, and Andrew prefers play over work, but Ellen enjoys his company and the lack of worry and heaviness in their relationship. He is an enigma to ELlen, who cannot figure out what keeps the old man seeming so light and full of unexplainable laughter. One day, ANdrew disappears all day long and returns late at night. He says that WHeezie, a Black woman who lives on his land and is descended from slaves his family used to own, made him dinner. Ellen tries talking to Wheezie one night and her child, but Wheezie sends the child away and won't respond to Ellen when she asks her where they used to live. Their house needs new shingles for the winter, and Ellen wonders where Wheezie has been living if not in the house. Ellen starts becoming more distant and critical of Andrew after this, and one night when he is gone and she sees Wheezie's child, she grabs him by the face and looks into the young boy's eyes. She sees Andrew's eyes, and the boy tells her that he and his mother lived in ANdrew's home before she arrived in the summer. She realizes the child is Andrew's and that the old bachelor is someone she cannot comprehend. She leaves that night, walking down the same path in the woods that brought her to him, heading back home to Searls.