The short story Recitatif is divided into "encounters," each one a union or reunion between the characters Twyla and Roberta.
First Encounter:
Meeting in a state home for children, Twyla and Roberta become friends because of their similar circumstances. Both are currently residing at St. Bonny's because their mothers could not provide adequate care for them. Neither of the children knows the reality of what is happening with their mothers, Roberta being told her mother is sick and Twyla being told her mother "dances all night." The girls are different races (black and white), but the reader does not learn which girl is which. Despite these differences, what they have both been through is what makes them such good friends. They spend their time at St. Bonny’s avoiding the badly behaved older girls, happily getting F’s, and making fun of Maggie, the deaf and mute cook with “legs like parentheses.”
On Easter Sunday, their mothers come to visit them, and while the girls hope the women will like each other, Roberta's mother, who is very stern and religious, disdains to shake the hand of Twyla’s mother Mary, who is wearing tight pants and a ratty fur coat. Twyla is very frustrated with and embarrassed by her mother, who, even though she is pretty, is coarse.
Eventually, Roberta leaves the home; even though the girls promise to keep in touch, they do not.
Second Encounter:
Eight years later in the 1960s, Twyla and Roberta coincidentally meet again. Twyla is working as a waitress at Howard Johnson’s, and one day she sees Roberta come in with two men. She is struck by Roberta’s skimpy clothing and copious makeup, as well as her superficial, flirtatious behavior with the men. Twyla is put off by Roberta’s condescension that Twyla does not know who Jimi Hendrix is (the musician Roberta and the men are going to see) and her seeming disinterest in reconnecting, and the encounter ends with Twyla rudely asking how Roberta’s mother is.
Third Encounter:
Twelve years after the second encounter, the women meet again. Both are married, and they bump shopping carts at a new supermarket. The meeting seems a lot more pleasant than the last one. Twyla shares that she is married to James, a fireman, and has a son. Roberta is extremely wealthy, married to a man in the computer industry; she has four stepchildren.
Their pleasant conversation is somewhat tainted when Roberta says at one point that Twyla’s memory of Maggie falling down in St. Bonny’s orchard is wrong—that the older girls pushed her and tore her clothes. Roberta says Twyla must have blocked that memory.
Fourth Encounter:
At an unknown date, the women meet once again. It is a time of racial strife over forced busing. Twyla’s son, Joseph, is supposed to be sent to a school some distance away, and she largely supports the busing.
One day, Twyla drives by the school where Joseph is supposed to go and sees a picket line of women. One of them is Roberta, and Twyla pulls over to talk to her. Roberta is against busing for integration, which bothers Twyla. The two women exchanged heated words and the other picketing women come over and rock Twyla’s car. A few policemen break it up and Twyla drives away. Another disconcerting element of this conversation is that Roberta tells Twyla that Twyla kicked Maggie and pushed her down, and that Maggie was actually black; Twyla doesn’t remember Maggie as black and doesn't think she pushed the deaf and mute woman at all.
Twyla makes her own sign that directly responds to Roberta’s and for several days joins picketers on the pro-busing side. She makes more signs that respond to Roberta, and the other women think she is a bit off. Finally, she makes a sign that asks “IS YOUR MOTHER WELL?”, and Roberta stops coming.
Fifth Encounter:
On Christmas Eve some years after the previous encounter, the two meet for the final time in a quiet coffee shop. Twyla is out buying a last-minute Christmas tree, and Roberta seems to be out partying with friends.
Roberta apologizes for what she said the last time—she lied when she said that Twyla pushed Maggie. She explains that she wanted the older girls to push Maggie because she saw Maggie as her mother, the symbol of her own frustrations. Twyla feels the same way. After a moment, Roberta begins crying and asks, “What the hell happened to Maggie?”
