Four people are in the bar: Harry the bartender, Helen the waitress, an older customer, and Sam. Helen plays the piano and sings songs with all the wrong words. Sam receives a call from a woman named Marcia who wants their relationship to work, but he turns her down because he believes they are incompatible. The older customer shares his own story, remembering how he had loved a woman but ended up being deeply embarrassed by her. Sam listens inattentively, thinking of another woman from his past, Doris, whom he had loved until all he could think of was getting her to leave him. He still wears the ring she gave him, but it feels like scar tissue rather than a memento.

Sam and the older customer talk to each other without really listening to what the other has to say. They talk about perfect girls, real and imaginary, and how every love story has an inevitable end. In their own ways, they acknowledge that every 'beautiful' relationship has the moment in which impossibility strikes both lover and beloved.

The waitress, Helen, still sings. Harry, the bartender, gazes at her with obvious want, but she comes over to Sam. They strike up a conversation, and Sam sees in her a little bit of every woman he has loved thus far. It strikes a chord in him; he remembers his old desire to find someone with whom he can be 'one person.' They leave together as Harry seethes in anger and the older customer picks up the song where Helen left off.