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Miss Emily is excited that the school teacher requested to use the Baldwin house for the location of their Spring dance. Miss Mamie is dismayed when she learns that Emily said that they could use the dining room. They are expecting John to come taste the latest batch of the recipe but when Jason arrives in his place Miss Mamie doesn’t recognize him and assumes it is his father whom she was expecting. She previously spilled some of the recipe when she was pouring it into a decanter. She asks how the war effort is and he reports some progress in Italy. She recommends that he visit Florence if he makes it to Italy. She states that it is the artistic centre of the World. Their Papa took them when they were very young and they saw the Statue of David. They taste the recipe and it is not what they expect. Miss Emily suggests that maybe Miss Mamie read the recipe wrong when she made it. Disturbed by this comment Miss Mamie excuses herself to the garden.
Miss Emily drives over to talk to John. She is concerned about her sister who no longer smiles and won’t go bird watching with her anymore. She says that her sister has stopped doing all of the activities she once enjoyed and that she has even heard he weep at night in her bedroom but she insists everything is fine. Miss Emily asks John if he will talk to Miss Mamie in the hopes that she will confide in him. He is more than happy to help.
Miss Mamie admits to John that she is going blind. He takes her to the eye doctor who informs them that Mamie has cataracts, a clouding in the eye that is like looking through a foggy window. He says that surgery is available but it is an extremely delicate procedure. Miss Mamie admits to being terrified. Miss Emily says that their Papa died on the operating table. The doctor says that it is not a life threatening operation. He schedules a date but allows her time to consider her decision.
Miss Emily finds her sister looking at the painting of their father over the mantel. Mamie says that she doesn’t know how much longer she has left to be able to see his face.
John and Mary Ellen arrive at the Baldwin’s to take Mamie to the hospital for surgery. miss Emily informs them that her sister has changed her mind and doesn’t want to proceed. She is not willing to have surgery and risk her promise to her father to be there for her sister. Their father went in for a simple procedure to remove a lesion and was dead 4 hours later. She says she won’t do the procedure even if the cost is her life.
John arrives home with Grandma. She is excited to see all of her grandchildren and especially Ben and Jason who are looking smart in their uniforms. Cindy introduces her to her first great-grandchild Virginia but grandma’s mood quickly sour’s when she sets her eyes on cousin Rose and her grandchildren Jeffrey and Serena. Rose chooses to be oblivious to Esther’s disapproval. John encourages Esther to prepare for dinner instead of stewing about the new woman in the house.
Esther settles in to her old room that Rose had been occupying. John comes in and says that she will always have a place in their home.
John takes Esther to see Miss Mamie who’s condition has deteriorated to the point where she can’t see them.
As the Baldwin’s prepare for the dance Esther explains to Mamie that she has no hope of using her right arm again since her stroke but Mamie does have hope for her eyesight if she would consider the operation. The sisters heed her words.
The next day at the Baldwin’s Esther tricks Miss Emily with a game of Blind Man’s Bluff to reveal how scared her sister must be having lost her vision. They hear that Mamie has broken a porcelain figurine that John Quincy Adams gave their father while dusting in the next room. She goes out to the garden to collect herself. Miss Emily and Esther follow her. Esther says that there is no hope to regain use of her paralyzed arm after her stroke but Miss Mamie has hope thanks to the surgery if she agrees. Miss Mamie questions Emily if she should break their oath to never have surgery but Miss Emily feels that their greater promise was to take care of each other. She feels that she wouldn’t be keeping that promise if she stood by and let her sister go blind when there is help available for her. Miss Mamie finally agrees to the surgery.
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