Sybil Van Antwerp settles in at her writing desk to write letters, a habit she has maintained since she was a girl and to which she attributes great meaning.

Sybil writes to her brother, Felix, in France and thanks him for the gifts he sent for her 73rd birthday. She recounts how she spoke with her children, Fiona and Bruce; how Fiona is getting on in Australia on a work assignment; and the roses she received from Theodore Lüdbeck, her neighbor. She refuses Felix’s invitation to visit him in France, preferring to read about France and see it through a postcard than experience it in person. She gifts him a photograph of when Felix was first adopted and brought home. In her postscript, she tells him she’s had a small, inconvenient accident with her car.

Sybil sends Theodore a note to thank him for the roses and explains she was brought home by taxi because she had a minor car accident the day before.