Effie is trapped in a house with her husband Hank, an "angry, stale little man", due to the lingering radioactive dust from a nuclear war using cobalt bombs.

A limited war went on for years with both sides carefully controlling their bombing to stay below the lethal radiation threshold.

Hank berates Effie for her unwise decision to open the shutters for a moment to look at the green-colored moon.

It is revealed that Effie is pregnant, which Hank believes has led to a recent promotion and will continue to improve their social status over time.

He enters through the window, and in return for food, he tells her his name is Patrick and talks of the new Garden of Eden that emerged due to the mutations caused by the radiation.

Hank returns early, mentioning he was aware Effie was carrying on an affair and he had realized the radium watch was a ruse to disguise the radioactive fetus.

This is disproven when the Geiger counter, the "ultimate arbiter of truth in the 20th century", goes off the scale when Hank measures Patrick.