Summary

The story opens with a narrator describing a woman (in present tense) being shocked with someone she sees on a television. The television shows men at peace talks, one of them being the woman’s torturer and rapist while she was captured in South America. The woman had been all around the world, but is currently in Long Island, in a house full of other nuns, in order to rest and deal with her mental state. She watches the later broadcast of the news to assure herself about the identity of the man, and she becomes more sure that the man is who she thinks he is. Worried, she burns a hole in the house’s carpet and is scolded by another nun.

The narrative flashes back to Beverly, the main character, escorting women to an abortion clinic at the dismay of protesters and...