The narrator recalls the moment at the 1984 dinner party when a man opposite her mentioned he was refusing to see a doctor about a health symptom, claiming "If my time's up, so be it!" His wife was concerned, and the narrator bluntly called his refusal "stupid," immediately regretting her harsh word choice. She worried others would think she cared too much about a stranger's health—and privately admits she was attracted to the handsome man.

To explain her strong reaction, the narrator shared a deeply personal story about her mother, who hated doctors and was both squeamish and superstitious. Her mother willfully ignored symptoms of a preventable illness, repeatedly declaring "Fate won't be fought!" The narrator recalls screaming silently in the car while driving to buy ginger beer for her dying mother, watched by a horrified child in the car beside her at a traffic light. Her mother died a week before her sixtieth birthday.

The bearded man at the dinner party labeled her mother a "determinist" and launched into his lecture on determinism. The narrator flatly responded that her mother was "a fool," acknowledging she was still very angry at that point in her life because she needed and missed her mother deeply. The bearded man then cited Albert Einstein's refusal of life-saving surgery at seventy-six, quoting Einstein's elegant farewell. The young dinner guests were impressed, but the narrator wondered how Einstein's children felt about his decision—whether they, too, begged him to reconsider.

In the present day, the narrator notes she has looked up the attractive man online and found he is still alive with all his hair and a second, much younger wife. His symptom turned out to mean nothing, as symptoms often do.