Missie May bathes in a galvanized washtub while waiting for her husband, Joe, to return home from work one Saturday evening. The couple lives in a tidy and cheerful whitewashed home with a yard full of flowers in the African American town of Eatonville, Florida. Joe, along with most men in the town, works at a nearby fertilizer plant. As Missie May exits the bath, she hears the clink of coins being tossed through her front door, a signal from Joe that he has arrived home. Missie May runs out to confront him and the couple engages in a play-fight where Missie May removes sweets and treats from Joe’s pockets that he’s hidden for her to find.
 
After Joe cleans up and changes into the clothes Missie May laid out for him, the couple sits down to enjoy Missie May’s cooking together. The couple banters pleasantly. Joe teases Missie May by withholding a second helping of potatoes from her and reveals he intends to take her to a new ice cream parlor in town after dinner.

Joe tells Missie May all about the shop’s owner, a man named Otis D. Slemmons. Slemmons has lived in cities all over the country and wears expensive clothes. Missie May says she’s seen him in town. He has a mouth full of gold teeth, a puzzlegut, or pot belly, and a lump behind his neck. Joe says he wishes he had a puzzlegut because all wealthy men have them. Missie May disagrees because famous wealthy men like Henry Ford and John D. Rockefeller don’t have big guts. She tells Joe that he’s handsome, tall, and strong and she wouldn’t have him any other way. Joe insists Missie May is only saying that because she loves him. He continues to talk about Slemmons’s self-reported success with women and about all the gold pieces he wears but won’t let anyone touch. Missie May is skeptical about Slemmons’s wealth and tells Joe not to be naïve. Joe tells Missie May to get dressed up so he can show her off to Slemmons at the ice cream parlor. Missie May playfully tells Joe not to order her around. While she dresses, Joe secretly imitates Slemmons’s walk and puzzlegut.

The story flashes forward to Joe and Missie May returning home from the ice cream parlor. Joe is excitedly talking about how rich and charismatic Slemmons is. He’s flattered that Slemmons complimented Missie May’s physique. Missie May agrees that Slemmons does have a lot of gold, but she says it would look better on Joe. Joe tells her he’s too poor to ever have gold like that and Missie May replies that they might find some gold that someone lost long ago. Joe laughs at the suggestion and says he doesn’t need gold and is happy the way he is so long as Missie May is his wife. Joe continues to take Missie May to the ice cream parlor every week to show her off.
 
One day Joe gets off from work early. As he walks home, he thinks about how happy he is. He loves his weekly ritual of play-fighting with Missie May, taking her to the ice cream parlor, and having the best-dressed wife at church on Sundays. Lately, Joe has been obsessing about having a child. He and Missie May have been married for more than a year and he thinks it’s about time they start a family. When Joe arrives home, he is shocked to find Missie May in bed with Slemmons. At first, he laughs. Then he punches Slemmons and kicks him out of the house. In the scuffle, he snatches Slemmons’s gold watch charm. He laughs when he looks at the gold and gets in bed. Missie May begins to cry and Joe asks her why she’s crying. She says it’s because she loves Joe but she knows he doesn’t love her anymore. He says she doesn’t know what will come to pass. Missie May explains that she slept with Slemmons because he had been pursuing her relentlessly while offering her money. Joe tells her not to cry anymore and that he got Slemmons’s gold for her in the end.

Missie May cries all night. She doesn’t get up to fix Joe breakfast in the morning because she is sure their life together is over. When Joe asks her to make breakfast, she jumps up and makes his favorite food. Missie May doesn’t eat anything and cries when she sees Slemmons’s gold coin on the table. Joe tells her to stop crying and not to think about the past. Some months pass and Joe does not leave Missie May. He no longer play-fights with her and they do not make love, but he is never cruel to her. Missie May stays with Joe because she loves him, but she doesn’t understand why Joe stays with her. Missie May feels sad and guilty whenever she sees Slemmons’s coin.
 
One night Joe asks Missie May to rub him because he has back pain and they make love. Missie May is happy, but in the morning, she finds Joe has left Slemmons’s coin for her under the pillow. She finally looks at the coin up close and discovers it is not gold at all but a gilded half-dollar. She understands why Slemmons would not allow anyone to touch his gold. Missie May thinks Joe has left the coin to punish her. She thinks Joe is implying he can buy sex from her as if she is a prostitute. Furious at the implication, Missie May decides to leave Joe. She doesn’t get far before running into Joe’s mother. The conversation causes her to head back home. Joe’s mother doesn’t like Missie May and Missie May doesn’t want to give her the satisfaction of being right. Missie May decides she will wait for Joe to leave her instead.

Joe continues to ask Missie May for massages. She no longer sees the coin but assumes he must carry it in his pocket. One day Joe stops Missie May from chopping wood because he can tell she is pregnant. She tells him the child will look just like him. Joe asks if she’s sure and she replies that she doesn’t know who else the child could look like. Joe does not reply but puts his hand in his pocket instead. Almost six months later, Missie May gives birth to a boy. Joe’s mother comes to help around the house while Missie May recovers. She says the baby looks just like Joe. She admires Missie May’s strength and says she used to think Missie May was not a suitable wife, but she no longer does. She implies Missie May’s mother was a prostitute and explains she was worried Missie May would be too. Joe does not reply, but afterward he is attentive to Missie May as she recovers.

When the baby is nearly a week old, Joe visits a white-owned shop in nearby Orlando. He puts the gilded half dollar on the counter and says he wants to buy candy kisses for his wife and new baby. The shopkeeper asks where Joe got the coin. Joe explains that he got it from a scam artist who came through his town pretending to be rich and stealing people’s wives. When the shopkeeper asks Joe if the man fooled him too, Joe says he did not. He says he beat the scammer up for telling lies and took his gilded half-dollar. When Joe leaves the shop, the shopkeeper tells a customer he wishes he could be as happy and unbothered as Black people are. When Joe arrives back home, he throws fifteen dollar coins through the front door. Missie May gets up from bed and playfully threatens to get him back for chucking money in her door.