Hank calls Joyce to ask about her relationship with Purple Stickpin. Joyce explains that after revealing her divorce, Stickpin became distant and now avoids her, which frustrates her. Hank advises her to move on, and soon afterward, Joyce writes that she has returned to Texas because her grandmother is ill.

Hank is summoned to the personnel office at the Federal Building. He meets a woman, Miss Graves, who questions whether he accurately reported his arrest record on his application. He admits that he missed a drunk driving offense from several years earlier and is instructed to explain it within 10 days. Hank, not particularly eager for the job, spends the evening composing a 42-page, highly elaborate and exaggerated statement, claiming that copies will be distributed to the press and media. The woman personally collects the document, reading it with multiple colleagues observing, evidently impressed. She tells Hank that his case will be continued and instructs him to keep working in the meantime.

Hank is assigned to work next to Butchner, a coworker who doesn’t sort mail but continuously yells obscene and threatening language at a young female employee. Hank initially continues his work, but Butchner’s behavior escalates, prompting Hank to confront him and challenge him to a fight. The supervisors ignore Butchner entirely. Later, a supervisor angrily writes Hank up for briefly leaving his seat twice, which Hank sees as absurd given the circumstances.

Over time, the grueling nature of the job’s 12-hour night shifts, oppressive supervisors and coworkers, poor cafeteria food, and the complexity of the City Primary 1 (CP1) mail scheme wear Hank down. The scheme tests involve memorizing hundreds of streets and zones, identifying 100 cards in under eight minutes with high accuracy, and passing three levels of difficulty. Due to the workload and demands, the group of original trainees quickly dwindles from around 150-200 to only 17 or 18, leaving Hank struggling to balance work, personal life, and intense scheme training.

Hank’s exhaustion from his routine forces him to study the mail scheme late at night before sleeping. He drinks a six-pack of beer while attempting to memorize the scheme, often falling asleep before finishing. He’s too tired to eat breakfast. One morning, after climbing the stairs to his apartment, he mistakenly enters the wrong unit and finds a woman there. Delirious, Hank doesn’t question why the apartment looks different. He offers the woman a beer, and they sit together. She evidently enjoys his company. Only when Hank moves to kiss her does she mention her husband. Realizing his mistake, he leaves, embarrassed, and climbs to his own apartment, finding it empty and disorganized, with old furniture and empty beer cans. Alone in bed, he drinks the rest of his six-pack.

While working at Dorsey Station, Hank hears that a veteran postal worker, Big Daddy Greystone, used a tape recorder to memorize schemes and tries it himself, hoping to learn subconsciously while sleeping. He records the scheme sheets and listens to them with his beer, but falls asleep before making progress. Frustrated, he considers seeing a psychiatrist to explain his inability to study the complex schemes, which require memorizing extensive street and zone information to pass tests. After imagining a conversation with a psychiatrist, he decides that he isn’t mentally ill. He calls Miss Graves at the Federal Building to request temporary removal from the CP1 scheme until his employment case is decided. She agrees, giving him relief, and he celebrates with a hearty breakfast and extra beer.

After being granted a reprieve from studying for the CP1 scheme, Hank relaxes at work, brushing off his coworkers’ questions about how the studying is going.

Hank spends Christmas with Betty, sharing a turkey, drinking several fifths of whiskey, and making love. During the night, the Christmas tree in their apartment tips over, nearly crushing him, but he manages to roll out from under it with only minor burns from the light bulbs. About a week and a half later, Hank returns to Betty’s room and finds the door open, the bed turned back, and a bloodstain on the sheet. The French woman who owns the building tells him that Betty was hospitalized after a severe drinking incident. Hank goes to the hospital, finds her in a small, crowded ward, and attempts to care for her by giving her water and cleaning her face and hands. He’s frustrated with the staff for leaving her largely unattended and questions why more isn’t being done for a poor patient. He leaves his contact information and plans to return, concerned about her well-being.

Hank attends Betty’s funeral, wearing a hastily purchased black suit. He locates her son, Larry, and they drive together in Larry’s Mercedes-Benz, joined by Marcia, the hotel owner’s sister. Betty died while Hank was making arrangements, and the funeral faced complications: The priest was reluctant to officiate because of questions about her Catholic status, and he ultimately agreed to conduct only a partial service. Additional issues arise with the flowers: Hank’s wreath of roses is delayed and improperly stored, arriving at the site wilted. Despite the heat, the small group completes the brief ceremony. Larry mentions that he’ll handle the headstone later, but Hank never receives the promised letter.

After the funeral, Hank goes to his apartment, drinks a strong scotch and water, and goes to the racetrack. There, he meets Vi, a light-skinned Black woman he knows from the central post office, and they watch the races together. Hank studies statistics to pick winning horses, using knowledge from past races and jockey changes. The horse he chooses for the second race narrowly beats the favorite by half a length. In the third race, his horse overtakes the favorite and wins by two and a half lengths. He wins bets on three of the five races he plays that day. Afterward, he buys cigars and liquor, leaves the track with Vi, and takes her to his apartment.

Vi is disappointed in Hank’s living conditions, so he drives them to her apartment, stopping to pick up steaks for dinner. In her building, Hank admires a posted rule prohibiting loud noise and TVs after ten o’clock at night. Hank helps carry the groceries into the kitchen and pours drinks for them. They flirt and tease each other, sharing kisses and physical intimacy. Vi shows Hank a photo of her six-year-old daughter, explaining that she’s in Detroit but is coming to visit in the fall. Vi begins cooking while Hank relaxes in the living room, drinking and watching television. They talk about the horse races, and Vi playfully brings him a drink and calls him “master.”

Hank struggles with intimacy while drunk, and Vi patiently attempts to engage him. Afterward, he falls asleep, and she wakes him later to continue. Exhausted, Hank tells her to stop.

In the morning, she urges him to leave before her friend arrives. He gets dressed, washes up, and Vi teases him about his drinking. Hank gives her $20, sharing his good fortune, before carefully driving to the racetrack.

Hank is summoned to the counselor’s office at work and is questioned about missing two days of work, which he explains he spent mourning the loss of a friend. The counselor, Mr. Feathers, lectures him about failing to call in, warning that the post office will retaliate. Hank responds defiantly, insisting on respect and dismissing the threats. He plays on Mr. Feathers’s fear of the violence that other supervisors had faced, as well as his fear of the post office’s Black employees, who Hank insists have his back. The intimidation works. Feathers sends Hank back to work and leaves the central office shortly after the incident.

Miss Graves calls to tell Hank that his appeal to keep his job was successful. He’s scheduled to take the CP1 test in two weeks.

Hank relates all of the addresses on the scheme sheet to sex and age, coming up with characters to help him remember each one. After scoring 94 (not high enough to pass), he gets 100 on his second attempt.

After passing the CP1 test, Hank is made a regular, with an eight-hour night shift and holiday pay, an improvement from the 12-hour nights. Out of the original employees hired at the same time as Hank, only a few remain.

Hank meets David Janko, a younger coworker who latches onto him after he shares his knowledge of classical music. Janko loudly confides in Hank about his personal troubles all night while they sit, working together. The nightly ordeal leaves Hank dizzy, sick, and overwhelmed, given Janko’s loud voice and relentless complaints.

Hank begins his shift at 6:18 pm., while David Janko arrives at 10:36 pm., usually after Hank’s lunch break. Janko sits next to him, loudly recounting exaggerated stories of sexual encounters with women in his horribly loud voice, which Hank finds exhausting. Meanwhile, new regulations force regular clerks to work overtime, sometimes for up to three extra hours, compounding Hank’s fatigue. Janko continues his nonstop, dramatic storytelling throughout these hours. He eventually presents Hank with a professionally typed, leather-bound manuscript of his romance novel, asking for feedback.

Hank takes Janko’s manuscript home, drinks beer in bed, and begins reading. At first, the story seems promising, describing Janko’s financial struggles, failed job searches, and a dishonest friend. However, once the narrative turns to the post office, Hank feels that it loses credibility and drifts into fantasy. It ends with a melodramatic plotline in which Janko’s character meets a refined woman at the opera, begins an affair, and watches her die by suicide because she can’t choose between him and her husband. Hank mildly criticizes the work, but Janko refuses to change anything. For months, Janko repeatedly brings the manuscript back, dreaming of literary success but insisting that he can’t quit his job to write because their employers wouldn’t hire someone so “intelligent.” Hank advises him to isolate himself and focus on writing, but Janko insists that he needs assurance from others to be a successful writer.