Dickstein's second wife Sharon, a Georgia native now living with him in New York City, was bit by a city squirrel after offering him a peanut. Sitting with her in the hospital, conversation turns to his first wife, whom Sharon just learned was a widow like herself. Since she's currently learning Freudian theory in an NYU summer course, she obsesses over the possible meanings of such connections, a pursuit Dickstein finds absurd. He's actually dated three widows before Sharon, he informs her - she postulates that such courtships are akin to "murder and possession of the spoils"; he admits to himself that he'd always viewed himself as the savior besting the deceased husband in those situations. He wonders who will replace him in Sharon's life when he's gone.

Dickstein wakes in the night feeling ill and vomits into the sink. He's thinking of his own father, an immigrant and accomplished medical doctor, who'd advised him never to date a widow. He looks in the mirror for his father's qualities in his own face. Sharon finds him asleep by the sink in the morning and washes him up. He feels a rush of gratitude to her, pledges to be the best husband, father, friend, and teacher to her that he can be, and promises to be a forgiving father to himself. The order has changed, it's his turn to be the caretaker facing down death. He watches his wife and feels incredibly lucky; feels like he's in a dream.