"Save as Many as You Ruin" is a relatively short story that follows a day in the life of Gerard, a good-looking yet emotionally detached man living in New York City. He leaves the office in the early evening, musing over the snow and memories it brings back, like his physical education teacher and an encounter with a rabbi making a documentary about the war. The reader learns about his daughter, Lucy, who is eight and living alone with Gerard except for the visits of Indira, an Indian student/part-time nanny who cooks dinner for them and helps Lucy with her homework. Snow begins to fall heavily.
On his walk home, he sees Laurel, the only woman he's ever loved, through a store window. He goes inside and pays for her fish and tea, talking with her about Lucy's mother, Issy, who left them to pursue an acting career and died four years later. Leaving the store, they get a taxi together, catching up on the last eight years. Gerard had briefly dated Laurel and fallen in love with her, but when his affair with Issy ended in her pregnancy, Laurel dumped him. Now Laurel's ex-husband has left her and is currently living with another man in Brooklyn Heights; she's clearly disappointed, and she takes Gerard inside her apartment due to a conveniently timed nosebleed, where they "make love."
When Gerard arrives home, his daughter happily guesses that he was with a woman. He pays Indira for the extra time, and she leaves. Before she goes to bed, Lucy asks if she can meet her father's friend and seems surprised when he agrees. They fall asleep, but Gerard wakes up around midnight and finds Lucy's stuffed panda before heading to the kitchen and pouring himself some whiskey. He goes into the study and stares out the window, contemplating life; there is a sudden moment of uneasiness that causes him to drop the whiskey, as he feels like there's someone nearby he can't see. As the story closes, Gerard thinks about the strangeness of life and all its secrets, feeling as though "life is a string of guided and subtle explosions."
