Joe Bonham, the protagonist of the novel, is working at a bakery in Los Angeles when he hears a phone ringing. Going to answer it, he hears someone saying that his father has just died, and Joe returns home. He sees his mother and his two younger sisters there, who are thirteen and seven years old. He looks at the face of his deceased father, who died after being severely ill. However, when he keeps hearing the phone ringing, he realizes that this is a memory. Joe is then engulfed by a sudden rush of pain and becomes aware of having bandages all over his skin. Joe becomes aware that he is actually in hospital, badly wounded. Joe has been serving as a soldier in World War I and now recalls how he was hit by an exploding German shell while in his trench. Feeling his heart pounding but unable to hear the pulse in his ears, Joe discovers that he is deaf. This leads him to another memory about his father and mother. While they were courting, his mother used to play the piano over the telephone to