The story follows Hetty Pepper, a lower-class woman who has just been fired from her job at a department store. With the last of her money, she buys a rib of beef, but then realizes she has no potatoes or onions to make a stew. As she gets water to boil the meat, she runs into a woman peeling potatoes, and offers to combine the meat and potatoes so that they can both have stew. But they still need that third ingredient...