Set in fictitious Starkfield, Massachusetts, the story is mostly framed as a flashback. It tells of Ethan Fromme, a man with a sickly wife with Zeena who resents him, and her cousin Mattie for whom he has feelings. Ethan and Mattie attempt suicide together but fail, and 20 years later, back in the present, it is Zeena, now healthy, who takes care of them.