Mrs. Hale is rushed out of her kitchen on a cold, blustery day to accompany her husband, Sheriff Peters, Mrs. Peters, and the county attorney, Henderson, to the home of John Wright. Mrs. Peters had wanted another woman with her, for she was going to gather the things of Mrs. Minnie Wright, accused of murdering her husband.
Arriving at the Wright home, the place strikes Mrs. Hale as it always does: an isolated, lonely place set in a hollow out of sight of the road. It is strange that Minnie lives here, as Mrs. Hale often remembers her as young, pretty, and happy—but that was twenty years ago, before she married John, a hard and severe man.
Inside the house, the Sheriff and the gallantly, cocky, young attorney ask Hale to recount what happened when he came by the other day. Hale nervously explains that he and his eldest son were driving a load of potatoes to town and stopped by the Wright home to see if they’d like to have a telephone put in. Inside, Hale found only Minnie, who was behaving very strangely. When he said he wanted to see John, she said he was dead. Hale and his son went upstairs to see John, strangled by a rope around the neck. Minnie simply said she was sleeping when it happened and heard nothing.
The men decide to go upstairs to look for more evidence. They clearly believe Minnie did it, but Henderson says they have to find a clear motive. On their way out, they joke that the women might find a clue, but that they might not know it if they see it.
Once they are alone, the women awkwardly look at each other. They are not that close, and to Mrs. Hale, Mrs. Peters seems very timid, but she does see a look in the woman’s eyes that makes her think that Mrs. Peters sees things more deeply than one might expect.
The women eventually discover that several things are amiss or half-done in the kitchen, which makes them realize Minnie must have been interrupted by something. Mrs. Hale reflects on how people consider John a “good” man even though he is cold and cheerless. She notes how he also must have been miserly, for Minnie’s stove is a bad stove and her skirt has been mended many times. The women begin to see how quietly desperate Minnie’s life was, especially as she had no children to occupy her time. Mrs. Hale feels guilty for not having come to see her more often.
The two women find Minnie’s sewing basket and see that she was making a quilt. They wonder if she was going to quilt the pieces together or knot them. An empty birdcage also arrests their attention, especially as the door is clearly broken. Mrs. Hale doesn’t remember her having a bird, but there was a canary salesman in the area not long ago.
As they continue to look at the quilting materials, they come across a small, pretty box. To their shock and horror, they open it to see a dead canary wrapped inside a small piece of silk. Its broken neck indicates that someone killed it, and apparently, Minnie planned to bury it in the box. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters intuitively know that John would have hated the singing bird and probably killed it; this, they surmise, broke Minnie’s spirit.
The men enter again, laughing at overhearing the women talking about quilting and other feminine “trifles.”
They prepare to leave, but Henderson says he will stick around to investigate more. The women look at each other sharply, knowing that if he finds the dead bird, he will have the motive he seeks. They get a couple more minutes alone, and Mrs. Peters frantically tries to shove the box in her purse. It is too big, but she balks at touching the bird. Mrs. Hale grabs it and puts it in her pocket.
The men return and suspect nothing; in fact, Henderson smiles that Mrs. Peters is perfectly trustworthy to take Minnie’s things to her because, as the sheriff’s wife, she is essentially married to the law. On the way out, Henderson jovially asks again if Minnie was going to quilt it or knot it. Mrs. Hale replies that she was going to knot it.
