"The Life You Save May Be Your Own" Summary

A one-armed man, Mr. Shiflet, walks up the dirt road to the decrepit cabin of Lucynell Carter and her retarded daughter, Lucynell Carter, who can't speak, and is thirty-years-old but looks about nineteen. The mother is a little suspicious of Mr. Shiflet's motives, but she is a widow and longs for a husband for her daughter, who can live on the place. Mr. Shiflet spots the old car in the shed and offers to fix up the place for room and board, and eventually gets the old car in running order and even repaints it.

Shiflet manipulates a marriage between him and the retarded girl, insisting he will treat her honorably and take her to a hotel for two days, at the mother's expense. The mother tearfully...