Rhoda notices that Jack is out of sorts. She finally is able to get out of him that what is bothering him is that this upcoming Sunday would have been his and his deceased wife Peggy's twenty-third wedding anniversary. While Peggy was alive, he could never remember such milestones, but now that she's dead, he can't stop thinking of them. Learning the story, Ida offers to cook dinner for Jack on Sunday, the dinner to be held at Rhoda's with Brenda and Benny also in attendance. The dinner doesn't quite come to pass as Ida, on her way to Rhoda's apartment, is mugged, her fully cooked meal stolen. Hearing what Ida cooked, Jack can't help but now want a pot roast dinner, it being too late to cook another. As it is still early and as it is a nice day, Rhoda suggests they all hop into Benny's car for the hour and a half drive to a restaurant that served what Jack and Peggy considered the world's best pot roast, an out of the way country place called the Quincy House in upstate New York. Three hours later in a raging rainstorm, they may never make it to the Quincy House as they are only following Jack's remembrance of where it was located by such landmarks as "the big elm tree".
—Huggo