In this story, the protagonist, Louie, recounts a time in his life when he perceives that he has sinned against his family, his mother specifically. At seventeen years old, the knowledge that she was dying felt like too much, and he "didn't allow himself to think about" it. He spent many hours away from home, "necking" and "petting" with his girlfriend, attending discussion groups, and, later, working as a flower delivery person.

He knew he should have gone home after delivering his flowers one February afternoon, but it is, perhaps, the funeral to which he delivered to that reminded him of how unpleasant home is. Instead of going home, Louie ventures out to his brother-in-law's dental practice and is tempted by the promise of sex after finding a naked woman on a table in the doctor's office next door. He sins, lured by his lust for this stranger, and is punished greatly, perhaps even damned: he ends up naked and penniless, forced to ask strangers for assistance, freezing and humiliated in little but a woman's light dress. To earn the money for the ride back home, he has to carry a drunk back to the drunk's home and cook a pork dinner for the man's daughters; it is degrading and disgraceful, and the cooking repulses him because he is a Jew and finds pork to be unclean. He knows he ought to be at home with his dying mother and his family, but his sin led him astray from his responsibilities. He is even grateful to be struck by his father when he returns because it means that his mother has not died.