A young woman, Joyce, is in her “practice days” sewing pockets in a factory, though she struggles with the logistics of the sewing. As she works, she is tormented by thoughts of her overseer Sam Hunt, her brother Michael, and her two coworkers from Galveston, Texas. Sam hovers around checking Joyce’s work with a measuring tape, while the sisters inquire nosily into her love life. Per her brother’s advice, Joyce tries to compliment them or make them laugh. She tries not to lie. Joyce gets a lot of advice from her brother, with whom she has a somewhat ambiguous relationship. Michael is a taxi-driver and has helped Joyce pay her rent for a long time—she says she would marry him “in an instant,” though he’s “sinister and disrespectful”. He bought Joyce a gun when she moved out alone. As she thinks, Joyce manages to sew a perfect pocket, and her thoughts turn to the furniture she will buy with her earnings. Then she thinks of Michael again, and the time his taxi caught on fire. She tries to explain this occurrence to the women from Galveston. She thinks of the urban projects. Eventually, a broken thread disrupts her reverie, and Sam Hunt criticizes her mistake. He tells her he wants to speak to her after work that afternoon. Joyce, afraid she is going to be fired, spirals in her thoughts and words.