After finding out she is pregnant, a woman curiously begins developing a habit of writing things down on little scraps of paper. She and her husband, Karl, are destitute. They have been staying at a boarding house for two weeks now, without paying their rent for the most recent one. The town is seemingly devoid of life, with many people who don’t have enough money to achieve their goals. The boarding house itself was once filled with life, a mansion owned by rich people, but now has given way to the impoverished who simply need a place to live out their worst days. Every day, Karl looks for work, but the woman is so sick and pregnant that she cannot go with him. Oftentimes, she records her thoughts and reads her previous ones on the little paper scraps. She does this while sitting on the boarding house’s porch, so high up that she can almost touch the old pear tree standing near the building. Although the woman is set on keeping her baby, Karl is persistent in his efforts to force her to terminate her pregnancy. When their circus broke up in San Francisco, his anger arose often, peaking when she vomited up the food they bought with what little money he managed to find. Eventually, they saved enough money to buy passage to a town at the mouth of the river, hoping there would be more work there. During this time, with no berth on the ship and an angry husband, the woman found herself writing things down on paper scraps, realizing she wanted to preserve the sense of loveliness she was beginning to feel. She recorded poetic descriptions of her surroundings and the hopes she had for her baby, speaking to her unborn child through writing and finding little to speak of to rampaging Karl. Now, trapped in a dying house and staying in a town devoid of fruitful work, the woman sits on the porch overlooking the pear tree. In the dead of autumn, the woman imagines the pear tree in its glorious days of bloom and feels something begin to stir within her. Suddenly, everything around her and within her seems an avenue for creation and opportunity. The neighbors she once thought of as sedated now seem bursting with life, the streets bloom like orchards, and her baby shines within her like a jewel. She understands that she must write all of her feelings down to preserve for her child when she is cold and barren once more. Later, when Karl does not return, she knows he has earned no money for the day and ventures into the streets to walk away her hunger. As she observes the night life, she imagines the pear tree and its gradually unfurling beauty of opportunity, speculating at its sap and fruit. When she arrives back at the boarding house, an old woman approaches her and says it is unfortunate she is having a child. Reality sinks back into the woman, and the tree diminishes into a motionless figure.