Christian Thrale is a businessman in London, called into an emergency end-of-day meeting that has been halted because they cannot find a girl to take the minutes. The woman that they do find, Cordelia, is a recent graduate and new secretary, who is a frail and fragile thing in the bullish, manly office, at least to Christian who has fallen quite quickly in love with her despite being married himself. He barely pays attention to the meeting, instead focusing on her habits, ticks, and corn-colored hair.

Christian's secretary goes on vacation, and he is given Cordelia for a replacement. He takes satisfaction in the fact that the meeting she was called into the other day kept her from her father's birthday, as he sees himself as her father's rival. Christian plots to take her to dinner, trapping her by putting off a memo until the very end of day and forcing her to stay late making carbon copies for him. There is some hesitation when he offers her dinner and a ride home, but Cordelia equivocates. The trees seem more vibrant to Christian as he drives her home, but when he sees the grandeur of her parent's home, he is stunned. So stunned, in fact, that he begins to doubt his place in the fantasy he has been creating in his head.

The next day, Christian decides to make a move on Cordelia by becoming slightly more physical. But just as the day is coming to a close, he gets a phone call and Cordelia slips out the door. As he was on-call in the office all weekend, now with no company, he sits glumly and alone watching the city move around him. Then suddenly he sees Cordelia's red cardigan and, grabbing an envelope as an excuse, follows her into a park and asks her to dinner before finally kissing her before taking her home.

Christian's wife Grace was coming home from her summer vacation with their children soon, and his original secretary's vacation was ending as well. This meant that Christian does not have much time to have sex with Cordelia. He finally does so just before everyone comes home. When considering the affair later, he blames himself but deep down blames literature and the idea of romance for giving him thoughts of love and independence and vitality that he could never get out of his head.

Christian tries taking Cordelia to lunch a few weeks later, but something has changed. She is no longer his, if she ever was, and she is acting differently. Her reserve and grace are gone, something familiar and dark there instead. When she appears in his office doorway one day, he hurriedly leads her away by the elbow lest anyone see and make assumptions. Asking her to dinner one final time, he tries to let her down easy but she cries at the table. He refuses to leave her alone until she gets on her train home, no matter how many times she asks him to.