The woman thinks about how she should be at a cantina with her friends on a Sunday afternoon rather than going to work. However, because her bank has dual control, two employees have to be there always in order for things, like doors, in order to work. She has known this for the last decade where she has worked here, ever since she learned it from her old manager. Now, there’s been a new manager, a black man, who has no respect for the rules and strangely has a honey jar on his desk, which he says is to keep everyone sweet, as he frequently offers it for the other coworkers to put in their tea, though she never obliges him. He, however, is persistent. From then on, he never does his work as assigned and dumps all of his work on her, and she puts up with it to stay employed and support her father through his illness. She wonders, often, how he can be so optimistic when things are bleak. She says he should be writing his will in case he dies. His mother says that’s just how he is and has always been: positive.

Now, the woman is at work on a Sunday, alone, cautious, to finish the work she’s been unfairly assigned. Things turn on and off as she sits there, as the bank likes to test its buildings during the weekends. On an app, she sees that she can now do things like open vaults from her phone. Accidentally, she opens a vault. She thinks back to how, with the old manager, she saw how safe but poorly ventilated the safety deposit boxes and money counting rooms are, how unbearable they must be to work in. Back then, the old manager teaches her a way to get out, through a button, if she ever gets locked in. Now, she has those keys which her old manager used to use.

In her office, the woman works, and the air conditioner turns on. She then hears a sound from the new manager’s office. She stands and wonders what’s going on. On her phone, the buttons for various controls are flickering. She tries to calm herself down, channeling her father’s optimism. Still, she feels like someone is here, a large person, in the new manager’s office. She tries to make a phone call, but she can’t use her work phone during the weekend. Under her desk, there’s an alarm, and she presses it to silently notify the police. Outside of her window, she sees the new manager’s car and has a sigh of relief. She intends to tell the police, when they get here, that she made a mistake.

The woman goes to her new manager’s office and tells him that she’s done the employee reviews, as well as offers to show him how to do it, as it’s his job. He doesn’t respond at first but then responds coldly to her. The woman suddenly feels off, at the sound of his voice, which is now strange. She tells him he accidentally pressed the alarm, and he says it’s just fine. When she turns around to leave, she sees a framed picture of him and his wife, but upon closer inspection, she sees her own face superimposed on his wife. When she tries to ask, the new manager says that his wife died and that he now has a second chance with her. She turns around and sees him, dripping with honey from his mouth, calling her a queen.

The woman runs, and he follows her. She tries to get out of the front door, but it’s locked, and the locks are filled with honey, unable to be unlocked. With her broken key, she heads to the vault which she accidentally opened and unlocks the gate to it. She tries to pull the vault closed but struggles, so she instead keeps running and locks the gate she just passed. There, the new manager says he wants to give her all his honey and take care of her. The woman, stuck with the safe deposit boxes, remembers that she activated the alarm, but the new manager gets a call on his phone and tells the police that it was a false alarm. Quickly, she runs further into the vault and fidgets on her phone to close the vault, which it finally does. It will remain closed for twelve hours, during which the woman thinks of how to get out. Through the vault door, the new manager says he will earn her love.

The woman retreats to the counting room, which smells musty and feels dry. She then thinks about her old manager and the tip she once gave her, about the button. The woman finds it, and a tiny vent, the size of a fist, opens up. She breathes in the outside air and wishes she was there with her father. She thinks of how to get out, in the twelve hours she has.