Ahead of his address before the "eastern division of neuro-psychs," Charles — an associate professor of psychology — coaxes his screaming baby into eating. Charles remarks to his wife, Marion, that the baby is behaving like experimental dogs with the frontal cortex removed; such dogs "respond with violent rage even when you stroke them."

The frontal cortex, he goes on to explain, is the center of association and memory. "They get along without memories? That must have its advantages," Marion muses. "How are they about love?"

"Sex?" he corrects her. "No interest at all."

The conversation soon turns to the content of Charles' talk itself, and Marion becomes distracted by the baby. "You really don't listen to me when I talk shop, do you?" he asks her. She insists she does indeed listen: "I was just thinking about those poor creatures...with their memories and their love taken away from them."

Marion takes over feeding the baby, and Charles wanders to look at some photos scattered on the dresser. They mostly consist of his wife's baby pictures. Among the photos, however, is a picture of a handsome young man — Marion's ex-husband. Charles has heard much about the man, but never knew what he looked like until now.

"I'm a little sorry that had to turn up," Marion says. Charles responds teasingly, but his wife repeats the apology in earnest. Charles's tone grows serious. What bothers him, he tells his wife, is "not the picture but that you should think it makes any difference."

"I just thought, frankly, it would make him seem a little too real," Marion explains. Charles grows more irate, insisting he wants to "face things exactly as they are."

Charles begins invoking all sorts of stories Marion told him about her ex-husband: the time he fled the set Thanksgiving table and returned hours later with unwelcome guests, the time he drove across someone's garden, the time he threw a typewriter at her. Marion defends the man, explaining that he was "really sick" and had been through "terrible experiences."

Marion asks Charles if he's upset because her ex-husband is good-looking. "I married him, Charles," she goes on to say. "There would have to be something, wouldn't there? ...What I mean is he was good-looking and perceptive and at times astonishingly tender—"

"Stop!" Charles explodes, interrupting her. "What are you trying to do to me?"

He flees to the bathroom and Marion talks through the door at him, insisting that "people are new people, new things happen to them, wonderful things." Charles emerges from the bathroom and brushes past his wife, heading off to his talk in a fury.

Marion changes the baby's diaper, thinking about the picture of her ex-husband. "Removing part of the brain," she reflects, "That would not be enough. That's not mostly where it is."

She thinks about her husband giving his talk and receiving praise from his colleagues. She's confident he'll return in a good mood, and then she can "convince him."

"HIs work, his psychology, means so much to him," she whispers. "I know the speech will be enough."