D. H. Lawrence's short stories portray complex, flawed interior lives, showing individuals facing momentous emotional events. In this story of fragile happiness and failed dreams, a tragedy forces a woman to acknowledge that she has never known her husband.

A Nottinghamshire coal miner's wife, a young mother, waits for her abusive husband Walter to come home. She blames his drinking for his absence. It turns out he has been killed in a pit accident. Laying out his corpse, after it is brought home from the mine, makes her realize they never really knew each other. Upon the discovery that her husband has died, the protagonist, Elizabeth, is able to remain calm and collected, especially in front of her children. In contrast, Walter's mother, who lives near the young couple and their children, becomes hysterical, highlighting her overbearing irritating nature.

David Herbert Richards Lawrence (11 September 1885— 2 March 1930) was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter who published as D. H. Lawrence. His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanizing effects of modernity and industrialization. In them, Lawrence confronts issues relating to emotional health and vitality, spontaneity, and instinct.

"No other writer with his imaginative standing has in our time written books that are so open to life." —Alfred Kazin

“Lawrence had that quality of genius which sucks out of ordinary experience essences strange or unknown to men.” —Anaïs Nin