Marie, a thirty-one-year-old, has checked into a hotel on the main street of a nondescript American small town in the 1970s. Through binoculars, she watches a woman whom she believes to be Cecilia Niall Roche, Marie's long-lost mother. Marie sees Cecilia leave work and head into a store. She decides to go down on the street to get closer. Cecilia leaves the store and goes into a drug store, and Marie follows, finding a booth to inconspicuously watch her mother. Cecilia is greeted by another woman of about the same age, and they talk about Cecilia's family. Marie learns that Cecilia goes by the nickname Sandy and that she has at least two sons who are married, as well as a grandson. As the women talk, Marie envisions what it must have been like when Sandy met her father, Jules Blaine, back in the 1940s. They would have met when Jules, a soldier, went into the government office where Sandy worked to inquire about a friend from the war. A few months later, they took a trip to New York City to be alone together. Sandy's friend gets up and leaves the drug store, and Marie contemplates going over to meet her mother, but she can't. Sandy gets up and heads to the bank. Marie follows, waiting in a parallel line to cash one of her traveler's checks. While in line, Marie again thinks back to the 1940s, when Sandy went to meet Jules in South Carolina. When they get to the front of their lines, Marie can hear Sandy getting a savings bond for her grandson, who, like his father, is named after Jules Blaine, Sandy's lover and Marie's father. This angers Marie because Sandy once tried to destroy everything associated with Jules. Back in 1945, when she was pregnant with Marie, Sandy boarded a bus and went as far out into the country as she could, to the Armbruster farm, where she used to babysit. Knowing that the family was out of town, she attempted to commit suicide, but the bus driver, suspecting something was off, called the police to save her. Two months later, she gave birth to Marie. Meanwhile, Jules dies in the war. When Sandy leaves the bank, Marie follows once more. Sandy meets her grandson as he gets off the bus. As they walk down the street, although Marie desires to go confront her mother, she hears her laugh and decides to let them pass.