Mrs. Wilson's doctor diagnoses her with cancer in the breast and uterus. He is almost robotic as he swiftly delivers the news. She has to undergo rigorous chemotherapy and other painful procedures, which she bears through with the help of several drugs. When the pain begins to emerge again, she finds strength in living with her daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter. Her granddaughter helps to distract her from her imminent death. But her son-in-law, most surprisingly to her, becomes the foundation she can lean on for comfort. He offers Schopenhauer's texts to her, and Mrs. Wilson finds herself reinvigorated by The Will to Live and his philosophies. She wants to live! But her cancer whisks her away. While dying, she remembers her childhood rooster, a stubborn and surly creature. She wonders if she had been more like that bird, could she have achieved more?