A man watches Mrs. Collins, a lady past middle age who lives with her family in Ordway, Missouri, mow the lawn. She lives in a house with her husband Mr. Collins, and her grown-up daughter Ruth lives with her sons next door. The DeSpains, a black family who lives in the barn in the Collins's backyard, would help Mrs. Collins mow the lawn, but Mrs. Collins always chooses to mow it on Sunday, the Sabbath day, which the DeSpains reverently keep holy. The man describes the work that the adult DeSpains do around the house on a normal day: the daughter Melanie does whatever Mrs. Collins tells her to do (if Mrs. Collins does not give Melanie a task, Melanie will follow Mrs. Collins around the house aimlessly) while Franklin and Lyle, the sons, help at the Collins's service center.

The man describes all the intricacies of the house, such as how the Collins's never lock doors— not even the bathroom, how their dog Ruby died a few years back, how Ruth keeps cats at her house, how Ruth's teenage sons are always rough housing (until Mrs. Collins catches them), how one of the DeSpain sons named his child Floyd (not to be confused with the adult Collins son named Floyd). The man watches Mrs. Collins mow the lawn and reflects on how well he has gotten to know the family during his ten day stay with them. But, he reveals, he is not staying with them as a normal guest, although the family has treated him as one of their own; he is investigating the case of the Collins's adult son Floyd, who is being detained. Floyd wrote a letter to the president of the United States imploring him to stop the war and the violence. He then threatened to kill the president in his letter, saying he would take the life of the president to save the lives of many others. The investigator thinks about how, having seen Floyd's family and his white house, surrounded by blue sky and green grass, Floyd could truly have thought anything was possible.