A young man tells the story of how he and his mother came to live by the yellow lake. His grandfather had been a minister but began hallucinating and making troubling utterances over time. Seeking help, the grandfather had visited Father Prior regularly until he decided to join the Priority community by the yellow lake. The narrator’s mother naturally followed in her father’s footsteps and joined the Priory, and she then convinced the narrator to stay for a summer. Though the narrator leaves after that summer for a few years, he returns to the Priory and finds work under the employment of a woman named Suzanne, to help her build the basement of her beach house. The same night of Suzanne’s job offer, the narrator dreams of his grandfather working in a basement to create a chamber of murals. Back in reality, the narrator begins working on Suzanne’s basement and many of Suzanne’s neighbors, including a man named Boswell, come to watch his construction progress every day. The narrator seems satisfied by the audience and finds pride in his independent construction work. However, Suzanne requests that her house be finished before the summer solstice in time for her to host the summer-solstice celebration for the Priory community, and the narrator is forced to accept the help of Brother Julius of the Priory. Due to the time constraint and his inescapable collaboration, the narrator feels distant both from his dreams to build a chamber of murals and from the rest of the Priory community. The scene cuts to a church service on the beach where the narrator arrives late and again, feels rather disconnected from his religious faith and the other congregation members. The day of the summer solstice celebration finally arrives and the narrator watches the Priory community dance and drink the night away though he does not join in on the excitement. The narrator ends with a final comment on how the people, despite their vulnerable behavior, cannot drown in the shallowness of the yellow lake.