The following version of this story was used to create this guide: Wharton, Edith. "Afterward." The Century Magazine, 1910.

Note that all parenthetical citations represent the page number from which the quotation is taken.

The story begins with Mary Boyne, alone in the library of her house, reflecting on something her cousin, Alida Stair, had said to her many months earlier. Alida had told Mary that there was a ghost in her new house, but that you would not ever know it until long afterward. The flashback continues and readers learn that Mary and her husband Ned were looking for a house in the southern part of England after having made their money from a business transaction of Ned's. In their conversation with Alida, they emphasize that they are looking for a house with fewer luxuries as they are "two romantic Americans perversely in search of the economic drawbacks which were associated, in their tradition, with unusual architectural felicities" (1). Alida confirms that the house is also haunted. Ned and Mary move into the house and are happy to be there in the remote area. Eventually, after a couple months, they forget about the possibility of seeing a ghost and go about their daily lives. But, as Mary sits in the library many months later, she recalls having seen a man walking toward the house one afternoon while she and Ned were standing on a balcony. Her husband left quickly in pursuit of the figure, but when Mary finally caught up to him, simply said the man was not who he thought he was and that he had not been able to catch him after all.

Still in the library, Mary catches a glimpse of a figure walking toward the house again, but this time sees that it is her husband, back from one of his afternoon walks. When he enters the library, she and Ned discuss whether the have given up seeing the ghost, but are interrupted by the arrival of the paper. In the paper, Mary notices an article about a man named Elwell who is bringing a lawsuit against her husband for the very business venture that proved so lucrative for the Boynes. Ned writes off Mary's worry by assuring her that the case has been thrown out already. Still wary, Mary continues to ask questions about the case until her husband assures her that everything is all right.

The next day, Mary is pleased to find that her anxiety over the news article has disappeared and her life has returned to normal. She leaves her husband working at his desk in the library and goes for a walk, excited to take inventory of all the parts of the house she wants to improve. As she is walking, a man approaches her and tells her that he has come to see her husband. She tells the stranger that her husband is busy working and that he cannot see anyone now. The man leaves, saying that he will come back later. Mary is soon approached by the gardener and the two discuss details of the landscaping at length. Mary returns to the house to work out calculations for her landscaping plans, and after realizing it is time for lunch, goes into the library to find her husband. He is not there, and she asks the parlor-maid, Trimmle, where he went. Trimmle simply tells Mary that he had gone out with the gentleman, and Mary, frustrated and confused by Trimmle's cageyness, asks the kitchenmaid Agnes where he had gone. Agnes tells Mary that Ned had left with a gentleman whose name she did not know as he had written it on a slip of paper to be delivered directly to Mr. Boyne. Later that evening, Ned has still not returned home, and Mary decides to go through Ned's desk to see if she can find the slip of paper that Agnes mentioned. She only finds a half-written letter to a man named Parvis concerning the Elwell case. Worried, she presses Trimmle and Agnes for information about the man, and they eventually are able to describe his hat. From the description, Mary realizes that it is the same man who had approached her during her walk earlier that day.

Two weeks later, authorities are still searching for Ned Boyne. Time passes, and Mary slowly begins to accept that her husband is gone. She rejects all the theories about his disappearance and decides that he simply vanished and is never coming back. She notes that the only entity who knows the truth of Mr. Boyne's disappearance is the house itself.

Sometime in the near future, Mary is once again seated in the library of her home. She is engaged with a man, Parvis, to whom her husband had written the letter she found in his desk. Parvis is surprised to learn that Mary does not know much about her husband's business venture in the Blue Star Mine, and he regrettably informs Mary that her husband's success had come at the expense of the livelihood of a man named Robert Elwell. After the case was dismissed, Elwell tried to take his own life, and eventually succeeded. Parvis shows Mary a newspaper article about Elwell's wife, who has been forced to appeal for aid. The article contains a photo of Elwell, and Mary immediately recognizes him as the man who had approached her in the garden and the man with whom her husband left the day of his disappearance. She also realizes that it is the same man whom she and Ned had seen on the balcony of the house a long time ago. Mr. Parvis does not believe Mary because Elwell was found dead before Ned vanished, but Mary is certain. As she realizes that it was she who sent the man to her husband, she remembers Alida Stair's warning that one will not know they have seen a ghost at the house until "afterward" (25).