A carpenter in Iowa knows that his son, Joey, has never liked working with him in his trade. Joey’s mother Mary was a farm girl and she had married the carpenter and they lived relatively happily. She constantly tried to push her husband to become a public figure of some sort, but he refused. She then said that she wanted great things for her future son, but she died in childbirth. The carpenter raises Joey as best he can, with a little help from Mary’s parents. He tries to get Joey involved in the carpentry business he has, but Joey seems generally uninterested. Instead, Joey begins to write poetry and the carpenter worries that he can’t have a stable career that way. Joey grows up still working for his dad and eventually leaves for college. He doesn’t do great in college, and drops out after three years and begins working for his father again. Joey saves up enough money to buy a typewriter and then tells his dad that he will cook for his dad, but that he’s going to spend most of his time being a writer. The carpenter doesn’t really understand the writing, but he knows that it’s good. One day, Joey invites a friend over from Chicago who he went to college with. The friend stays for a while and gets along with the carpenter. One day, the father overhears that Joey submitted poetry to New York and that they declined it. Joey says that he isn’t even sure why he wrote it down and his friend says that he had to because it was inside him. The carpenter realizes that his son has been lonely for a long time and remembers how he has never really fallen for any girls. Soon after Joey’s friend leaves, Joey’s grandparents die and leave him everything in their will. He offers it to his father, who tells him to keep it. Joey keeps the money and moves away and the carpenter continues to work. One day his son comes home and says he wants to work for his dad. His dad is grateful and he hears that his son had told someone that his father is the greatest man he knows. One day, Joey crosses the street and gets hit by a car and dies. The carpenter gets a letter that says one of Joey’s pieces has been accepted by a New York publishing company.