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After a difficult marriage with a drunken husband that ends in separation, Mrs. Mooney opens a boarding house to make a living. Her son, Jack, and daughter, Polly, live with her in the house, which is filled with clerks from the city, as well as occasional tourists and musicians passing through. Mrs. Mooney runs a strict and tight business and is known by the lodgers as “The Madam.” Polly, who used to work in an office, now stays at home at her mother’s request, to amuse the lodgers and help with the cleaning. Surrounded by so many young men, Polly inevitably develops a relationship with one of them. His name is Mr. Doran. Mrs. Mooney knows about the relationship, but instead of sending Polly back to work in the city, she watches as the relationship develops. Polly is uncomfortable with her mother’s lack of intervention, but Mrs. Mooney wants to wait until “the right moment” to intercede. First she speaks awkwardly with Polly, then arranges to speak with Mr. Doran on a Sunday morning.
Mrs. Mooney looks forward to her confrontation with Mr. Doran, which she intends to “win” by defending her daughter’s honor and convincing Mr. Doran to offer Polly his hand in marriage. Waiting for the time to pass, Mrs. Mooney figures the odds are in her favor, given that Mr. Doran, who has worked for a wine merchant for the past thirteen years and garnered much respect, will choose the option that least harms his career—that is, marrying Polly to avoid a scandal.
Meanwhile, Mr. Doran anguishes over the impending meeting with Mrs. Mooney. As he clumsily grooms himself for the appointment, he reviews the difficult confession he made to his priest on Saturday evening, in which he was harshly reproved for his romantic affair. He knows he can either marry Polly or run away, though the latter option would ruin his sound reputation. Convincing himself that he has been tricked into such a conundrum, Mr. Doran bemoans Polly’s unimpressive family, her ill manners, and her poor grammar, and wonders how he can remain free and unmarried. This is the moment Polly enters the room and threatens to end her life out of unhappiness. In her presence, Mr. Doran begins to remember how he was bewitched by Polly’s beauty and kindness, yet still he wavers about his decision.
Uneasy, Mr. Doran comforts Polly and departs for the meeting with Mrs. Mooney, leaving her to wait in the room. She rests on the bed crying for a while, fixes her appearance, and nestles back into the bed, dreaming of her possible future with Mr. Doran. Finally, Mrs. Mooney interrupts the reverie by calling to her daughter. Mr. Doran, according to Mrs. Mooney, wants to speak with Polly.
