Dexter Green is infatuated with Judy Jones from the very first time he sees her on the golf course when he is fourteen and she is eleven in F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "Winter Dreams." She is a beautiful girl, and for Dexter she is the ideal of what a female should be, attractive, self-assured and, of course, rich. Her character is often compared to Daisy Buchanan from The Great Gatsby.

Unfortunately, she is impetuous and a terrible tease. She leads him on twice in the story and then dumps him. The fact that she treats him badly never disturbs his feeling that she was, after all, the ultimate girl.

In the story's final section, Dexter has moved to New York and while he is talking business with a man from the midwest, he learns that Judy has married badly. Her husband "drinks and runs around" on her. She has also lost her beauty and looks much older than her twenty-seven years. Dexter is shocked by the news and becomes depressed that his ideal girl has turned out ordinary. His illusion is shattered and he feels he has lost something important inside himself.