At a piano recital, Roger Lewis, a widower and retired English teacher, meets Monica Appelbaum, who graduated from high school with him in 1942 and Louis Ornstein, whom Roger has known since they started college. During Roger's ride home with Monica to the northern suburbs, she has a vertigo attack. Roger is able to help her and in gratitude, Monica calls Roger and begins a phone friendship. While performing volunteer duties at a Hospital Roger meets Mary Davis, a widow in her 70s. After her discharge, Mary invites Roger to dinner, and they begin a friendship. At a second recital by a young distant cousin of Monica, Roger meets another cousin, Louise Cooper, a widow in her 70s. She too invites Roger to go out with her.