Mrs. Jerome Franklin Washington III is an ugly, uneducated young woman who has married a schoolteacher she deeply admires. Mrs. Washington works as a hairdresser in a shop behind her father's funeral home, proud that she provides for herself and her husband without any help from her father. Mrs. Washington is deeply in love with her husband, but finds it a struggle to make him stay home with her most nights. Jerome seems more interested in his books and his friends than his wife, as shown by the fact that he treats his wife with distain and often spends his time away from the home.