Joe Hinckley, a travelling hardware salesman, had received a telegram from his mother-in-law two hours before he could read it. He had been chatting away with a customer and only discovered the telegram when the clerk at his hotel notified him of it upon his return. After reading the horrifying news that Bessie, his wife, had fallen ill after giving birth to a boy, Joe immediately headed for the train station. Their son’s premature birth had upended the couple’s careful planning for Joe to be with his wife when she would go into labor. Now, Joe is mortified with how he was laughing and talking with a client while his wife was dying. He quickly boards a train that will take him back to Mobile, Alabama. He begins reminiscing of the wonderful times he and Bessie have had during their first year of marriage. He also thinks of his kind mother-in-law. However, when faced with the thought of his wife dying on her bed, he tries to reassure himself that Bessie will be alright by hypothesizing that his mother-in-law was simply panicking.

Soon, a porter begins calling Joe’s name, saying he has a telegram. At the commotion, the surrounding guests laugh and murmur, and Joe slips further into anxiety. He tries to calm himself by saying the telegram must be from the clients whose appointment he had to miss to catch the train. Joe leaves the telegram unopened, nauseously wandering to the rear vestibule and tearing the telegram into shreds so he does not have to read it. He deludes himself into thinking he will see his wife and son, returning to his seat relieved and ecstatic. He proclaims the news of his son’s birth to the conductor as he is stopping by to check tickets. After joking and teasing the passengers in front of him, Joe launches into the story of how he and Bessie met and got married. The passengers quickly grow tired of Joe’s crazed speech, but Joe fails to notice. When a few of the passengers get off the train, Joe briefly tries to have a smoke in the smoking car and eat, but feels anxiety regarding the unknown condition of his wife. One of the passengers he was previously speaking with is now joined by her husband. Acting on the husband’s innocent curiosity of Joe’s newborn son, Joe begins telling them of his wedding and honeymoon (much to the wife’s detriment).

Before Joe can finish his story, the porter tells him the train has pulled into Mobile. As Joe disembarks, he wishes one of the passengers a nice trip. The passenger responds that her doctors told her it is too late to operate on her, to which Joe mistakenly replies words of celebration. He joyfully walks into the station, then encounters his mother-in-law dressed in black. When he realizes his wife has died, Joe weeps and explains that he didn’t read the second telegram so he could keep Bessie alive a little longer. He and his mother-in-law then walk out of the station.