Marie Wilson is an aged black woman who is nearly blind. She lives alone although is apparently well liked by neighbors. Marie's neighborhood was once family-oriented and safe but has now become blighted with crime. She lives in an urban center that shows much decay. Marie habitually carries a serrated knife with her whenever she leaves her apartment, and she has used it on one occasion to slash a would-be purse-snatcher's hand. Marie subsists on her Social Security disability payment and lives in constant fear that the Social Security people will cut her off. She knows that any disruption in payments would be financially difficult and almost impossible to rectify. During the story, Marie is repeatedly summoned to the Social Security office to meet with various administrative officials. Every visit entails difficulty and expense for Marie but she always goes. She also always spends hours in a stuffy waiting room and often is not seen before the office closes. Meanwhile, Marie has been contacted by a young university student who is pursuing an oral history project. He tape records Marie as she reminisces about her childhood. At the end of the project Marie receives a set of tapes. After listening to a few seconds of one tape, she packages them up and puts them away, horrified at the sound of her own voice.
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