A boy named Joel Harris goes to a drugstore after school to see Mr. Bigelow. Joel asks to do work for Mr. Bigelow in exchange for a magazine. Joel gets the work and while in the basement he walks in on another worker smoking cigarettes while working. The woman attempts to seduce him but he escapes upstairs and is told by Mr. Bigelow to sweep as his last task. Before he receives the magazine, the woman tells Joel her name is Ethel and that he can come see her any time. Joel arrives home with the magazine. The house is quiet, so he goes to his room and opens the magazine. The page that he is fascinated with is an advertisement featuring a nude woman. Joel cuts out and props up the picture, strips naked, and recites the poem “To Helen” by Edgar Allen Poe while pleasuring himself. Joel's family bursts into his room and his father, George Harris, chastises and spanks him for being home late.  He suspects that he went to work at Mr. Bigelow’s drugstore and asks for the money Joel supposedly received. Joel tells George that he did not work for money, and instead shows him the magazine. George notices that one of the magazine’s pages is missing. He asks Joel what happened and Joel shows him the picture. George then spanks him more viciously and takes the picture and magazine. Joel lays on his bed crying and thinks of Ethel’s offer.