The diminutive Emily Knapp is an unmarried librarian who lives in Massachusetts with her domineering mother. Emily arranges for the pair to vacation in Italy, where they enjoy a day at a countess's palace. The invitation was procured by Emily's friend Persis, whose older brother got acquainted with the Contessa during his time as an American consul after WWII. While she sits in the Contessa's drawing room, Emily stares with admiration at the woman. The Contessa's purported perfection makes Emily more acutely aware of her own crooked, jutting teeth. She resents that her mother didn't have them fixed when she was a child. Emily and her mother leave the palace and return to their lodging to prepare for a concert that evening. They get into an argument over the mother's lost comb — one that devolves into a bitter fight and returns Emily's mind to the object of her rage: her teeth. She reflects that "her whole life was spent waiting for her mother just once to say that she was sorry she had not had Emily's teeth fixed when Emily was a little girl." The petulant mother declines to go to the concert, and Emily attends with Persis. Persis reflects on how her "pretty and gentle and sweet" friend is "crushed by that old tyrant of a mother." After the concert, the pair waits for the Contessa, who has promised to return them to their lodging via her boat. The Contessa, however, declines to stop the boat at their lodging. Instead, she ushers Emily and Persis out at her palace, and directs them to walk the intervening distance in the dark, rainy night. The two women are furious at this social slight. Emily chalks the cruelty up to a conjecture that the Contessa was long ago scored by Persis's brother. But Persis secretly suspects that the Contessa felt encumbered by hosting "the little Knapps" at her home, and lashed out accordingly. Emily returns to her room and informs her mother about the Contessa's gesture of derision. Emily questions why such a perfect woman — with "gifts from the gods" — would not be above "such base motives and acts." The mother makes a quip about the Contessa's pitted face and says, "I don't see what's such a gift of God about acne." Emily is suddenly struck by the implications of her mother's compassion for this flaw — which largely escaped Emily's attention. It seems Emily realizes that her mother is indeed aware of her horrible teeth, and that it isn't simply the ignorance of motherly adoration that prevents her from apologizing. Emily becomes enraged, but her mother has already fallen asleep.