Therese is 19 and wants to be a set designer—instead, she works at Frankenberg’s department store in New York City. When the novel opens, it is the Christmas season, and Therese sits in the store’s cafeteria wondering what it’d be like to work there for 15 years or attend their vacation camps. She thinks about her boyfriend, Richard, and possibly going to Europe with him. She remembers Sister Alicia, one of the teachers at her school, who gave her knitted green gloves for her eighth birthday.

Therese feels lonely, and seeing the same faces at work multiplies her isolation. She thinks Frankenberg’s operates on the “wrong plane.” She is friendly with Ruby Robichek, an older, unattractive woman who works in the sweater department on the third floor. Therese works in the doll section of the toy department on the seventh floor. Therese doesn’t visit Ruby but keeps an eye out for her.

In the toy department, Therese notices a “frenzied” toy train. As for the dolls, she doesn’t have to persuade people to buy them. If they want a doll, they’ll get it. Therese notes that dolls are “a special kind of Christmas gift, practically alive, the next thing to a baby” (9).