A woman, Mrs. Hortense Shluzer is sitting on her porch on a suburban street with her dog. She is reading a book. Across the street, she sees Mrs. Klobstock, a woman who runs the local boarding house, taking a break outside. Hortense wishes the empress Euphemia would exist to it with her. Hortense often wishes fictional or historical characters were keeping her company. Her husband, Harry Shluzer, does not return from work until five-forty. She is alone all day, save for the company of the dog. 

A long time ago, she meets Harry when visiting her cousins. They are married and honeymooned. Everything is lovely. Harry has a wonderful job, though, now that she is dependent on a man, she grows lazier and heavier. She was happy but wondered who wanted just happiness without some superb misery or despair. 

The dog freaks out as a man approaches the porch. His name is Bruce. He says he is new to the area and is looking for Mrs. Klobstock and the boarding house. She says she is Mrs. Harry Shluzer. Then she realizes that the man is going to leave and she will again have none of the interesting pieces of life that they have on the other side of the street where the boarding house is. 

She invites him in under the pretense that she will give him information on where to board in town. They sit and talk. He reveals he is a photographer. There is slight sexual tension between them as he thinks she is into him and she is attracted to his newness. He offers to take her photo. She shows him the photo she has of Empress Euphemia. He sets up the area to take her photo and she wears makeup and dresses like an empress, wearing her fanciest gown and gloves. She thinks she could never say things to Harry when they spent time together during the evenings. 

Bruce helps arrange her robes and furs. There is sexual tension between them. Bruce thinks he could seduce her if he wanted. Hortense thinks her husband is always the same and boring. She is attracted to the way Bruce is removed from her life. He thinks she is beautiful. He embraces her. She makes demanded resists. He kisses her. Harry arrives home. They try to act normal. Hortense says he has ruined the surprise photos of her. Harry thinks his wife is doing this as a birthday gift. Bruce scurries off and says that he will bring her the developed photographs later. He never does. Harry never suspects anything. 

Hortense is angry that the man left only to go across the street to the dreaded Mrs. Klobstock’s! She is quite jealous. She wishes he could have gone far away and then traveled to see her, as that would be actually romantic. That night Hortense cries and is comforted by her husband, Harry. She is comforted by his kiss and familiar sent and accepts her life.

Bruce, however, thinks his time with Hortense was quite romantic and the idea of living so close makes it even more so. Every evening he walks by Hortense’s house. He always looks away as the first time he walked by her house, she looked away. He felt their romance was his greatest romantic affair because of her dismissing of his attention and the way the husband walked in and the tragic fact that all of the photos turned out bad. Thus, he had nothing to give her so he never went to see her.

Mrs. Shulezer goest on with her life. She feels somewhat angry that Harry never found out and that she didn’t leave him. However, she is mostly content and sometimes disagreeable, but not so unhappy. That is until she realized that Bruce never came back to bring the pictures. So, that day, she treated herself to a day downtown full of food, tea, and shopping. When she returns, she indulges herself in a book, immersing herself in the stories of her favorite heroines. And when Bruce walks by, she does not look at him but continues reading. When Harry comes home, she cooks him dinner as she feels touched by mercy and healing.