On a typical day, her habits never varying, Miss Dove oils her creaking gate and walks to the schoolhouse, briefly stopping to address her neighbors along the way. As the school bell rings, she stands at the entrance to her classroom as each of her pupils gets in line and greets her with "Good morning, Miss Dove." During this morning's session, she reprimands David Burnham (Biff Elliot) for swearing and tells him that he must remain after class and write "Nothing is achieved by swearing" 20 times in his notebook. During David's detention, Miss Dove suddenly feels a sharp pain at the base of her spine and tells David to run and tell his father that she is ill.