Summary

The novel opens with the unnamed narrator on a sidewalk, contemplating a plaque dedicated to someone killed in a traffic accident. She considers the note left by the man’s mother, reflecting that though she frequents this spot, she has never seen her in person.

In the following chapter, the narrator describes her relationship with one of her friends’ husbands. She realizes she could likely have a romantic relationship with this man, but that it would be fruitless in the end and that they are better as friends. They watch the shadows of passers-by on a bridge before each going to work.

In “In the Office,” the narrator reflects on her workplace, presumably a college or university, where she works as a teacher. She mourns that her heart is not in her work, and that she instead treats it...