A young married woman meets Mrs. Hartner onboard a cruise ship and gradually begins to establish a friendship with her. As an old woman in her seventies, Mrs. Hartner has a heaviness in her that is reflected by the ocean that surrounds the two women. As their friendship deepens, Mrs. Hartner begins to reflect on her own life and give advice to the younger woman under the conviction that women have a responsibility to share knowledge with one another. The older woman proceeds to tell the story of her own affair, which happened nineteen years into her marriage. Two years after her first romantic encounter with her lover, they met again; their emotions for one another had only grown during their time apart. Mrs. Hartner speaks of the heaviness and unexpected nature of the love affair. She and her lover wanted to be able to wake up next to each other but were thwarted at every turn. Mrs. Hartner suspected that her husband Tenny knew. During the last attempt to see her lover, Mrs. Hartner traveled to the river during a severe storm, but the ferry boat could not operate. She was left looking at her lover from the opposite shore as the storm raged. While Mrs. Hartner stayed married, she still carries pain from those events with her. In the end, the young woman finds out that Mrs. Hartner has been dead for years.