Margaret is a painter who lived for five years in New York before the Second World War with her husband. When he went off to war, she understood that there would be a distance in their marriage - but she did not expect him to return and promptly divorce her. Looking to start again, she decides to get an apartment of her own. Her new home is right beside a printing press, and the incessant sound fills her with tension and fear. No matter what she does, Margaret cannot calm herself. She takes to a semi-nocturnal routine, working after the presses shut down and sleeping very late. In the afternoon, she wakes up and gets food from the street nearby. However, another problem presents itself very quickly. Margaret is deeply unsettled by the group of teenagers that loiter outside the hamburger shop; boys who have never seen war, who look like they're waiting for something to happen. Despite herself, she is fascinated by one of them - a boy in a pinstriped suit. At a friend's party, an inebriated Margaret begins to talk about 'the terror in the streets': the teenagers that scare her so. Fearing that she may have embarrassed herself, she walks home but goes out of her way to cross the boy in the pinstriped suit. He calls her 'Lucy' as she passes, but she never stops. This time, when she enters the hamburger shop and orders coffee, he follows. Filled with fear, Margaret flees and leaves her purse behind, locking herself into the apartment and shaking. He follows. She hears him knock on the door and does not open it. In the morning, she wakes up determined to move away forever - but when she opens the front door, she sees her forgotten purse swinging on the doorknob.