The first paragraph reveals major plot points that will be examined in detail throughout the work. Joe Trace, a Black cosmetics salesperson living in Harlem with his wife, falls in love with an 18-year-old girl named Dorcas and shoots her. He is never prosecuted for the murder, and he mourns the loss of Dorcas every day. Joe’s wife Violet, a hairdresser, visits the funeral to look at Dorcas and tries to cut her face from her skull. When she is stopped, she runs home and releases all her birds from her cages. Doomsayers in the community see Violet’s act, just three days into the new year of 1926, as a sign of destruction to come.

After the funeral, Violet attempts to gain control once more. She has an affair to punish her husband, but Joe takes no notice. She then tries to fall in love with her husband again, but the memory of Dorcas haunts them both. Violet tries to learn as much as she can about Dorcas, even finding out what type of lipstick Dorcas wore. Violet obtains a picture of Dorcas from Dorcas’s aunt Alice Manfred and puts it on the fireplace mantel.