“A Small, Good Thing” opens with Ann Weiss ordering a cake for her son Scotty’s birthday party—he’s turning eight years old on Monday. She tries to strike up a conversation with the baker, assuming he must have kids of his own and understand the excitement of birthday parties and cakes, but he seems disinterested, which offends Ann.
On the morning of Scotty’s birthday, Scotty is hit by a car while walking to school. The driver waits until Scotty gets up and then drives away. Though he seems fine, Scotty walks home instead of going on to school, and he soon slips into unconsciousness. Ann can’t wake him, so she calls her husband, Howard, who calls an ambulance. At the hospital, the doctor, Dr. Francis, insists he that Scotty is in a deep, restorative sleep, not a coma, and that he’s bound to wake up soon.
After spending the whole day in the hospital at Scotty’s bedside, Howard decides to go home for an hour to bathe and change clothes. The phone rings as he’s walking in the door, and he thinks it must be the hospital calling to say that Scotty’s condition has worsened. But the phone call is from the baker about the cake, which hasn’t been picked up. Howard says he doesn’t know anything about a cake and hangs up. While Howard is in the bath, he gets another call, but the caller doesn’t say anything.
Scotty is still asleep when Howard gets back to the hospital, so he encourages Ann to go home to rest—though he warns her to not talk to the “creep” who’s calling the house. Ann, however, refuses to leave Scotty’s side. When Dr. Francis does his rounds, he informs the parents that Scotty has a concussion but that he should wake up soon.
By the next afternoon, Scotty still hasn’t woken up. Ann and Howard realize they need to feed the dog, so Ann begrudgingly agrees to go home to do it. On her way out of the hospital, Ann meets a Black family who are also waiting to hear whether their son, Franklin, will live. When Ann gets home, the baker calls again, though he’s vague and threatening, and Ann doesn’t know who the call is from or what it’s about. She asks if he’s calling about Scotty, and the baker says it “has to do with Scotty.” Panicked, Ann calls Howard, who affirms that Scotty’s condition hasn’t changed since Ann left, and that the caller is probably a psychopath who heard about Scotty’s accident.
When Ann returns to the hospital, the family she met earlier is gone. She asks the nurses what happened to Franklin and is saddened to learn that he has died. When Ann gets to Scotty’s room, Howard tells her that the doctors are going to operate on Scotty. Suddenly, Scotty wakes up, howls, and dies.
The doctors are shocked at Scotty’s sudden death, but Dr. Francis tries to comfort Ann and Howard. When Howard and Ann get home that night, they get another call. The caller (whom they still don’t realize is the baker) says, “Your Scotty, I got him ready for you.” He calls again after midnight, and Ann suddenly realizes that it’s been the baker calling all along. Even though it’s the middle of the night, Ann and Howard rush to the bakery to confront the baker about the phone calls.
The baker is angry at them because of the wasted money and time he spent on the cake, but Ann is furious and tells him her son is dead. The baker immediately softens and apologizes. He sits down with couple, and they talk through the night. The baker gives them hot rolls, and tells them that “eating is a small, good thing in a time like this.”
