In her quest to make the Hillside Inn successful, Bert Statzer has whipped up a maelstrom of preparations for her very important incoming guests. Her focus is on the party’s author, who she hopes will give her his recommendation to earn more attention. After inviting her friend May over to review her work, she continues making small adjustments to her already meticulously arranged food and dining room. She hopes that by emulating the tea rooms of the city, she can attract more high-profile guests and move herself, her husband Arlie, and her mother Mrs. Hohenschuh out of Shell Spring. Mrs. Hohenschuh, however, presents a challenge, as she refuses to exchange her “primitive” rural German ways for the urban habits Bert so dearly idolizes. Bert frets that her mother’s nature will repel her impending guests from the inn. Now, almost as her guests are about to arrive, Mrs. Hohenschuh is digging in her garden—much to Bert’s horror.

Finally, Bert’s guests pull up to her inn. In the ensuing nervous scuffle, she forgets their names and to ask the writer, Mr. Whetstone, to write his name in her visitors’ book that she has saved for important guests. After telling him she knows who he is, Bert ushers the two women of the party to their rooms to freshen up, all the while apologizing for the rustic nature of her inn. Despite their comments that the inn is “lovely”, Bert fears their praise is condescending. After escorting the two men of the party to their rooms, Bert starts for the dining room. She feeds Arlie in the back kitchen and sets the roasted chicken on the main table. Many of her dishes and parts of her setup are imitations of images of tea rooms from magazines. Bert calls her guests down for dinner, and the seating flows rather formally. Her guests comment on how similar the food and tableware is to their typical city fare, but Bert cannot discern whether they mean that in a good way. As they eat, Bert isn’t welcomed into their conversation as she had hoped.

Soon, her mother comes in, and at the sight of her old dress, Bert almost cries. She serves her guests dessert, then is devastated by her mother approaching them with a bottle of homemade dandelion wine. Knowing how her mother loves to entertain her guests, Bert skulks away to the kitchen and tries to hold herself together as voices and laughter rise in the dining room. As she always does with guests, Mrs. Hohenschuh takes the party out to her garden and everyone seems to enjoy themselves. The author discovers a traditional German sculpture of a troll, and Mrs. Hohenschuh explains that Bert moved it away from the front yard to hide it. She lets them pick flowers, then leads them inside to tell them about her family’s history and show them her curios. Bert is particularly anxious that her mother is boring the guests and making a fool out of herself, but they’re interested in her mother’s stories and even venture up to her messy bedroom to see some more of her items.

When Bert’s guests finish their stay, Mr. Drayton, the organizer of their trip, surprisingly pays Bert much more than she charges. He tells her it doesn’t begin to cover the entertainment they’ve had, and all four of the guests sign Bert’s visitors’ book. When Bert confesses to Mr. Whetstone that she’s interested in writing, he tells her it would be much more worthwhile to continue cooking the food she has made for them today or, in his eyes “even better”, to make dandelion wine like her mother. When Mrs. Hohenschuh tells them she will make them dandelion wine and fried chicken (instead of the roasted chicken common to the city) on their next visit, the guests react with much more enthusiasm than they’ve shown to Bert. Mrs. Hohenschuh gives them vegetables from her garden and they express how satisfied they are with their stay to her. Mr. Whetstone even tells her he wants to hear more of their stories. By the time they leave, Bert still doesn’t understand how the appreciation she was hoping to earn was given to her mother instead.