Hulga Hopewell has a PhD in philosophy and reads books so abstruse and technical that her mother regards them as "some evil incantation in gibberish." However, she is easily deceived and robbed by the Bible-salesman calling himself Manley Pointer (an obviously fake name which she does not question) who seems to share her nihilist philosophy. Hulga boasts: "I don't have illusions. I'm one of those people who see through to nothing." Manley, however, later responds to this by pointing out that a nihilistic outlook can be arrived at without a PhD in philosophy: "I been believing in nothing ever since I was born!"

The story ends with Mrs. Hopewell and Mrs. Freeman—who have also been deceived by Pointer's apparent piety but have not lost anything by it. Hulga has lost her leg and her dignity. Her reproach to Pointer that he is not acting like a Christian suggests that, after all, her atheism and nihilism do not go very deep, since she still expects Christianity to be a guarantee of good behavior. While her education may have provided her with some impressive theories, it has not helped her to attain the truth or even, apparently, fully replaced the world-view she was taught as a child.