A man named Jim recalls a house that was in his neighborhood that belonged to a Dr. Lane. The neighborhood was on the edge of a canyon, and Dr. Lane's house had a field beside it. The house was near Butler's Folly, a tower built by a man named Butler who hoped people would pay and climb it to see the view of the city. People did not, and Jim reminisces that there are many ways of dying without profit from a dream, not just from building a tower; one may also be too timid. Dr. Lane had two daughters, named Ruth and Ethel. Ruth was two grades ahead of Jim, and Ethel was a grade or two below. Jim, who was a young boy at the time, passed by the Lane house a lot when the girls were on the porch. One day, Jim goes to see his cousin, but his cousin is not home. Jim goes outside and sees Herb Scott, a boy a few years older than him. The two talk for a bit, until Herb suggests that they go to the Lane house and watch Ruth and Ethel undress in the window. They go, but just hear the girls voices for a while until the lights go off. Jim tells Herb he does not know the girls, but really he thinks about Ethel all of the time. Herb and Jim continue to spend time together, and one day they walk over to the Lane house to see if the girls are there. Ruth is reading on the porch, and Herb asks if she and Ethel want to go on a walk. The girls join them. Herb flirts with Ruth as they walk and kisses her. He taunts Jim to kiss Ethel, but he will not so Herb kisses her instead. Ethel and Jim look at each other, and as they continue walking Ethel talks to him. Ethel still goes to grade school, but she says that in the fall they should walk as far as the grade school together, because it is on the way to the high school. For the rest of the summer, Jim walks near the Lane house as often as he can, but is always too nervous to walk right by it. In the fall, Jim and Ethel start walking to school together every day. Jim's friend from school, George, wants to walk with him too, so the three walk together until Ethel starts walking on her own. Jim continues to walk close to the Lane house, and he thinks that he has lost Ethel because she is too good for him. He regrets being too cowardly to say the speeches and letters he wrote for her. Over the years, Jim sees other girls, and then the War comes. One day Jim is back in town visiting, and he sees Ethel sitting next to a young Lieutenant at the theater. Their eyes meet once, but Jim keeps talking to the girl next to him. One night at training camp, Jim writes Ethel a long letter. Ethel responds and is pleased to hear from him, but distance has grown between them. When Jim finally returns from the army he sees her on the street, but flees quickly after taking off his hat. He is ashamed of all the tender things he wrote in the letter. A few years later, Jim returns to his hometown again. He is a very successful and important man. He walks along the street that leads to the Lane house, and it no longer holds any meaning for him. He remembers when he won a Nobel Prize, and he thinks for a moment about Ethel and the Lieutenant. Jim reveals that he lied in his story, and that he is still very poor. He knew that Ethel was there in the house when he walked on the street. When he went up to the house, he could not get himself to climb the stairs. He looked at the house with his insides twisted and tears in his eyes until he ran to catch the train.