In 1920s rural Nebraska, 65-year-old Anton Rosicky has a check-up with Doctor Ed Burleigh. Burleigh tells Rosicky that he has heart failure and that, to take care of himself, he will need to do less physical labor in the fields. Instead, Burleigh encourages Rosicky to work more in the home and enjoy spending time with his wife and six children, all of whom are a remarkably happy and generous family. Rosicky playfully resists Burleigh’s diagnosis.
After Rosicky leaves his office, Burleigh reflects sadly on the diagnosis, wishing it were someone else besides Rosicky who was in failing health. He cares deeply for Rosicky and his entire family, whom he has known since he was a poor boy growing up in the country. He remembers a time the previous winter when he had come to have breakfast at the Rosickys’ home after spending a night delivering a neighbor’s baby. He was struck then by the differences between the Rosickys and other neighboring farm families: the Rosickys are all remarkably warm and hospitable, while other families are cold and overworked, pushing to make as much money as possible. The Rosickys are mostly comfortable financially, but their home is humble and they do not strive for more than they have. Burleigh considers whether it is impossible to both enjoy life and achieve financial success.
After Rosicky leaves Doctor Burleigh’s, he goes to the general store, buys some candy for his wife, and lingers to chat with Miss Pearl, a girl who works there. On the way home, he stops and fondly observes the beautiful graveyard. It begins to snow as he arrives home. At home, Rosicky’s wife, Mary, asks him about the check-up, choosing to speak to him in English instead of their first language, Czech, to communicate the seriousness of the matter. Rosicky tells her that Burleigh told him to take better care of his heart and work less, although he still feels resistant to the idea.
Soon enough, though, the entire Rosicky family is trying to help their father, and his five sons have taken on more of the physical labor on the farm. Despite his wishes to work in the field, Rosicky mostly stays indoors now. He tailors for his family—a job he had done when he lived in London and New York, decades earlier—and while he sews, Rosicky thinks back to his time in New York, where he had been poor, young, and happy for a time. In New York, he had lived with friends and spent his limited funds freely, going out for drinks and to the opera. Still, he grew restless after a while and eventually decided to move to Nebraska out of a desire for more open space, connection to nature, and land of his own.
On a Saturday night, Rosicky goes to his oldest son Rudolph’s house to offer him and his wife, Polly, the family car so that they can go into town for a night. Rosicky is worried that Polly, an American girl who did not grow up in a rural environment, will be so dissatisfied with country living that she and Rudolph will move away to a city. While Rudolph and Polly initially refuse Rosicky’s offer to do their dishes while they take the car into town, they eventually concede.
On Christmas Eve at the Rosickys’ house, the entire family and Rudolph and Polly have dinner together and talk about their fear of crop failure this year, since it has not snowed. Rosicky insists that, even if the crop does fail, things will be all right; his sons, he claims, do not know real hard times. Mary agrees with her husband, telling her sons that Rosicky has always kept a good attitude even when times have been difficult on the farm. Once, when they suffered corn crop failure, he responded by giving them a picnic to celebrate what they did have, instead of fixating on what they lacked.
Rosicky then tells his children about his time as a young man in London, where he had lived with the family of a poor tailor, Lifschnitz, and one other boarder, a violin player. One Christmas Eve, Rosicky was so poor and hungry that he ate a goose that Mrs. Lifschnitz was saving for Christmas dinner. Feeling guilty, he went into town and begged four Czech people for money, which they gave him. He was able to use the money to bring back a bountiful meal to the Lifschnitz family, and a few days later, the same Czech men offered to pay for his passage to New York where he could get better work. He accepted their offer and left for New York shortly thereafter. After he finishes the story, Polly seems notably more affectionate towards the Rosicky family.
In the springtime, Rosicky goes to help rake weeds on Rudolph and Polly’s land, even though he is not supposed to because of his heart condition. While he rakes, his heart starts to hurt and he nearly collapses, but Polly saves him. She calls him “father” and cares for him for an hour afterwards. Still, the next day, Rosicky dies, though just before he passes, he reflects gratefully on having seen Polly’s kindness in his final days of life.
Several weeks after Rosicky’s death, Doctor Burleigh goes to see the family and offer his condolences. On the way to their house, he stops and overlooks the graveyard where Rosicky now rests, thinking to himself that it is a beautiful place, much more beautiful than the oppressive graveyards in cities. He concludes that Rosicky’s life was “complete and beautiful.”
