All her life, Millie has known no higher goal than marriage. For her, the union between man and woman would provide happiness, stability, and children. After graduating from business school, she quickly becomes a stenographer a linoleum company to make a living for herself while she waits for a marriageable man. During this time, she also purchases a crochet needle and yarn to make a double bed’s bedspread. At 22, away from her life in the Bronx, Millie meets Lou in the countryside, and the two fall in love. Within two months, Lou proposes, and Millie quits her job at the linoleum company. They move to a Bronx apartment and spend happy but busy days fixing it up. A month after they are married, Millie finishes making the curtains, the final touch on their home. With the home completed, Millie tries to fill her days by learning how to cook from her mother. Although Lou compliments Millie for her fine work, she quickly falls into restless boredom due to the limiting nature of her housewife duties. They don’t have enough money for children, and although Millie is content in waiting, she feels they would at least bring some activity into her life. Soon, she begins noticing she and Lou are not always content with one another. Thinking she can make herself happier by losing weight, Millie begins dieting. In her continued agitation, she ventures more and more outside, even going to her old linoleum office. One of her former coworkers tries to convince her to come back, but no matter the allure of the task-heavy office lifestyle, Millie decides to remain a housewife. When she tells Lou about getting a job, he seems to balk at her excuse that they have enough money. The next morning, he also points out that she may be getting too nervous from her increased smoking.
Thinking she should expend her energy running errands, Millie visits the grocer and vegetable seller, then heads for the butcher. She makes pleasant conversation with the man, and he’s elated that he made her laugh, claiming that she always seems so serious. Over the next several days, Millie continues seeing the butcher. One day, she feels particularly cheerful, and she and the butcher flirt with one another (though she becomes bashful when she notices how forward he is). When Lou returns home, he comments that she seems rather high today. As Millie is cutting the steak she bought earlier, she realizes the only thing that could have brought her so much happiness was her trip to the butcher’s. She tries to deny the surfacing of her feelings and suggests to Lou that she might need a job to get out of the house, trying to cover her underlying question of what could be wrong with her marriage. Puzzled at this request, Lou asks her what she means, but Millie doesn’t understand what she really wants either.