A young couple finds themselves in difficult financial straits. The man is out of work and spends his days walking the streets, without so much as a cent in his pocket to buy food. He's so weak that he collapses in front of a store window. The store's owner, an elderly man, comes to the man's aid and offers him a job. His new job requires him to spend all day sitting and keeping watch on the small room at the end of a corridor.