When he is 11, Bob decides to run away from home. He begins by visiting the train station several times, examining the schedules and even entering a train car.

One evening, his mother announces she is having a party and that Bob must go to the home of a woman she knows to spend the night; the woman, his mother explains, has a son named Rory who is Bob’s age. Bob, when he arrives, plays basketball with Rory after Rory’s invitation, despite having no athletic ability or interest.

The boys eat dinner while listening to a radio program, and Rory asks Bob whether his father is serving in the war. When Bob replies that he does not know, Rory continually questions him about his father’s whereabouts until his mother speaks with him privately.

At night, Bob lies awake in a sleeping bag on the floor of Rory’s bedroom, then gets up and puts his clothes on over his pajamas. He tells Rory’s father, when he encounters him in the kitchen, that he is heading home.

Bob walks home, then watches his mother through a window, dancing with a man. Bob heads to a nearby park where he falls asleep on a bench. He returns home at seven o’clock the next morning; his mother unsurprised to see him back so early.