A father is traversing to San Mateo, California, where he is planning to buy a house so that in the case that he is able to see his children again, he will be able to house them somewhere. After parking his car, he has an appointment with an eye doctor to discuss his worsening eyesight. Though fifteen years prior, the Doc had told him that he would maintain perfect eyesight, the man is now nearsighted. He contemplates the ambiguously strained relationship he has with his son and daughter. He remembers both how his son wanted so desperately to be with his father that he waited outside a bar for him while he speedily drank. In another instance, the father drove his son to Palo Alto, though the son didn't care for the city, having imagined it differently. Palo Alto brings up professional failures the man has faced, since he had hopes to attend Stanford for English, and now finds himself uninterested in the work that he thought would sustain him indefinitely.