Katherine Oldham sees a homeless man in the park, feeding the pigeons. He looks perfect. Her brother, Fitzhugh, his mind either on a bird or his butterfly collection, absent-mindedly agrees. She brings the old man inside and feeds him some stew. The man dimly suspects something is wrong when the eccentric brother blurts out something about killing and substitutes and insurance. But his benefactors seem so nice. And they even give him a new suit of clothes--Fitzhugh's clothes. And they let him spend the night. He may have spent his last night on a park bench--or anywhere else.

When a young man sees his fiancée struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver, he is inconsolable. When questioned by the police, he is unable to remember anything that he saw, even though he wants very much to have the driver caught. A week later, he is visited by a stranger who claims he can help. The visitor tells him that his own son died in the same way, and he offers to help the young man to remember the license plate number that he saw, by using special memory recall methods. It's not clear, though, what the visitor's motive for helping might be.