Roger, the boy who the old woman takes into her house after he tried to rob her, only washes his face once, but dries it twice and for no other reason than that he doesn't know what else to do.

The old woman asks him to wash his face because she says he is filthy and she wouldn't even send him to prison in that state. However, she's obviously unimpressed by his efforts because when he comes out of the bathroom she gives him a comb and tells him he needs to make himself presentable before he eats. Roger then sits down at the dinner table to enjoy a meal of lima beans and ham.

After she had made such a fuss about Roger making himself look decent, it seems appropriate that she then tells him that she works in a beauty parlour in a hotel.

At the end of the short story, she gives Roger $10 and tells him to buy the blue suede shoes he so desperately wants. Roger seems to want to do or say something special to thank her, but all he can say is “Thank you, m’am... And he never saw her again."

"Thank You Ma'm" is a short by Langston Hughes that takes place in fifties Harlem and details the poverty and hardships suffered by the African Americans living there.