A pioneer widower, in appearance decades older than his years, dwells in a modest log cabin with a boarded window on the outskirts of Cincinnati, Ohio. Why this window is boarded his neighbors have no knowledge, but the story's narrator, who heard the tale from his grandfather, reveals the secret of the recluse and his mysterious past. Ambrose Bierce, an author famous for his Civil War and horror stories, here masterfully crafts a tale of suspenseful tension only relieved at the very last sentence.