A middle-aged greengrocer, William Hollis, endures a sweltering afternoon in his garden while trading observations with a prosperous neighbor whose practical, commercial outlook contrasts with Hollis’s imaginative restlessness. Their conversation drifts from local sport and business to fears about population, foreign competition, and the prospect of war, exposing small-town anxieties and class tensions. Alone, Hollis confronts stalled ambitions, a growing sense that his best years are behind him, and a strained domestic life, then makes tentative, inward resolutions to change amid the routines and rhythms of provincial life.