Daphne Fuller and her husband, Jonathan, spend a day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art before Jonathan leaves town. Jonathan notices an elderly man repeatedly watching Daphne and quietly tests his suspicion by leading her quickly through different galleries. When the man follows them into Modern and Contemporary Art and then retreats after being seen, Jonathan decides to confront him despite Daphne’s reluctance to engage a stranger.

Daphne goes looking for Jonathan and finds him speaking with the man. Jonathan reveals that the stranger is not a stalker but Eddie Triplett, one of Daphne’s long-lost former stepfathers. The sound of Eddie’s voice confirms it for Daphne, and the recognition overwhelms her. She breaks down crying in the gallery, and Jonathan gently gets the three of them to the museum café so they can sit down and talk.

At lunch, Eddie explains that he is seventy-six, still working as an editor at Random House, and came to the museum on a whim after a water-main problem shut down his office. Daphne and Jonathan tell him about their lives, and Eddie asks after Daphne’s younger sister, Leda. The conversation reveals Eddie’s continuing affection for the sisters: he never remarried, had no children, and still thinks of Daphne and Leda as his own. Daphne, in turn, remembers how important Eddie was during a brief calm period in her chaotic childhood and how much she once wanted to share his name and become a writer.

As they talk, Daphne’s memories expand beyond the lunch itself. She recalls that her mother forced Eddie not only out of their home but out of his job after their divorce, and she admits to herself that she once believed she was partly responsible for that divorce. After a long lunch, Eddie gives Daphne his phone number but pointedly does not ask for hers, leaving the next move to her. He hugs Daphne goodbye and heads back into the museum, while Daphne and Jonathan abandon the rest of their outing because the encounter has changed the day completely.

Walking through Central Park, Daphne asks Jonathan to let her visit Leda before returning home. Jonathan, who now understands that the meeting has stirred something deep and unresolved, supports her and walks her to Leda’s building. On the way, Daphne explains that Eddie disappeared completely after the divorce: no visits, no cards, nothing. Jonathan concludes that of the important older men in Daphne’s life—her father, Lucas Ekker, and Eddie—Eddie seems to have been the best one lost.

At Leda’s apartment, Daphne shares the news, and the sisters begin uncovering the old pain beneath their surprise. Leda remembers Eddie as a stabilizing, kind presence and admits that she too long believed she had caused his departure: her childhood appendicitis led to the car trip during which Daphne and Eddie were in an accident, after which Eddie was hospitalized and then gone. Daphne realizes her tears came from the same buried guilt and from unresolved feelings about the accident, which she has barely discussed even with Jonathan. Their conversation ends with the sisters returning mentally to that childhood moment, when Leda came home from the hospital and asked Daphne what had happened in the car.