Humans are missing from the house's routine in Ray Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains." The story's entire premise is based on the idea of what would happen to an automated house meant to make life easier if human life disappeared. To make sure the reader understand the story's premise, Bradbury includes a Sara Teasdale poem, which explores how nature would not mind if "mankind perished utterly."

Throughout the story, it's clear that the house is there to serve humans and the humans are missing. After nearly five paragraphs of the house performing several actions—preparing breakfast, reading the daily agenda, etc.—the narrator reveals that the house is, in fact, empty. The garage door opens to let the car out, but nothing happens. The prepared breakfast sits untouched and "the eggs were shriveled and the toast was like stone."

Eventually, the narrator reveals what has happened to the people who lived in the house, which is the only one left standing in the "ruined city" that "gave off a radioactive glow." The narrator describes the four who used to living in the house as silhouettes caught mid-action when a nuclear strike occurred: the father mowing the lawn, the mother picking flowers, and son and daughter playing catch.