Summary

The story opens with Francis Weed, the protagonist, on a plane flying into a storm. As the turbulence worsens and his fear increases, he tries to distract himself by focusing on the ordinariness of things around him: the man next to him soothing his own fears with the contents of a flask, a child crying, his left foot, which has fallen asleep. He tries reading, but that also fails to keep his mind off the danger. He sees a bit of irony now in the little window curtains that give the cabin an atmosphere of "misplaced domesticity." When the lights fail, the man next to him begins to talk about the cattle farm in New Hampshire that he has always wanted. The pilot announces an emergency landing, and then begins singing a song.

The plane crashes in a cornfield, but miraculously...