Miss Catherine, a sixty-seven year old woman, is left at home to watch her nephew's children David and Polly while her nephew Philip and his wife Helen head into town. After going outside to feed the fish in the lily pond, Miss Catherine notices that it is an extraordinarily hot day, so she wants to spend the day napping, letting the children's nanny keep them out of trouble. However, her neighbor Abe comes to visit, drunk. He says that his wife, an indigenous woman called Indian Belle, is not doing well. Miss Catherine tells Abe to go home and have some coffee. She then notices David and Polly slipping through the fence, so she goes to follow them. After swimming in the river, the children continue on to Abe and Belle's house. When Miss Catherine arrives at their cabin, she seems a commotion in the backyard. Belle is beating Abe with a stool. Too petrified to do anything, Miss Catherine watches from the woods as Abe falls into a lake and dies. Later that evening, Miss Catherine joins the family and a few strangers for dinner, sitting at end with the children. The meal is interrupted by news of Abe's death, which the sheriff believes was an alcohol-related accident. When the other people leave the table, Catherine remains with David, who does not know that she was there too, and she begins to cry.