A midwife named Grammer Weare is walking through the cold woods in a fishing town in New Hampshire when a man with a lantern comes up behind her. The man is named Poll's Matt, and he sees her bag and guesses that she is going to see Ting Seaver's girl Doll. Grammer refuses to say, and she continues on her way. As she walks to Ting's shack, she hears the sounds of the shoe factory which has recently been built in the town and which has brought fresh faces to the town besides the families that have been there for hundreds of years. 
Grammer enters the Ting's shack. Ting is sitting at the table, his wife Gathy is by the fire stirring broth, and his son Hipper is weaving cord into a lobster pot. Doll is laying on the bed, her eyes staring at the ceiling. Gathy says that Doll will be needing her soon, but they have not heard a groan out of her yet. Hipper responds that Doll is a saucy tart and she should sweat for it. Hipper takes some of the broth, even though it is supposed to be for Doll. Hipper says that Doll has been going around to every mother's son in the village, and Doll says that this is not true with tears running down her face. Hipper throws a clam from his stew at Doll's face, and it lands on her cheek. Grammer removes it and asks the girl if she would like to eat it, which makes Doll laugh. Ting curses Doll for laughing after what she has done.
Grammer kicks the men out of the house. Other men from the factory walk by the house on the road; they whisper when they reach the house and then laugh loudly when the pass it. Doll groans at this attention. She tells Grammer that she feels movement, but Grammer responds that it is not time yet and it will be a long night. Grammer and Ting's wife Gathy drink broth while they wait. They put a gown on Doll, who laughs at a mouse in the corner of the room. Her laughs soon turn to sobs, and she tells Grammer that it is time. 
Doll struggles through the night. When there is a silence at one point and Grammer is wiping her face with cool water, Doll cries to her that it was never Poll's Matt but once, and the child has nothing to do with him. She insists that the child is from another man who is like the sea on a fresh day. Grammer reassures her that she would be the one to know. As the night goes on, Doll screams only once, and her face gets more distant. Morning comes, and the baby is born. Doll is unresponsive. Gathy and Grammer try to blow life into her, but she is dead. Gathy says "Ah, well." 
Hipper and Poll's Matt enter the house. Hipper sees Doll and says, "poor girl." Poll's Matt wants to see the baby, but Grammer says he'll have nothing to do with it, and he leaves. Hipper angrily asks if Poll's Matt is the father, and Grammer responds that he is not. Ting comes into the house and avoids looking at the bed. Poll's Matt has already told him that Doll is dead. Ting says that she was a good girl when she was younger, and he begins to eat breakfast. Grammer says that she will give Doll tending soon, and she packs up her bag to leave. The whistle in the nearby factory sounds, but the house is silent except for the sounds of eating and breathing.