Written in 1939, “The Painted Door” is set on a farmstead on the Canadian prairie in the middle of winter. Over breakfast, John, a farmer, informs his wife, Ann, that he is going to walk five miles over the snow to check on his aging father and help with chores.
Ann is displeased at the idea of being left alone. She stands at the window, defrosting the glass with her breath and taking in the alienating frozen environment. She complains that she is surely as important as John's father. John assures her he will be back for supper. The narrator describes John as slow and dull-witted. Eventually, Ann changes her tone and says she will be fine on her own: she will use the white paint they bought in the fall to brighten the interior of their home. John says he will ask Steven, their neighbor, to come by the house that evening so she will have someone new to talk to. The couple are kinder to each other as Ann helps John get bundled up.
Ann watches John walk a mile until he disappears on the horizon. Alone, Ann goes between keeping the fire oven full of wood to heat the home and painting the bedroom door white. The silence outside feels like a malevolent presence to her. She tries to cheer herself up by thinking of the spring, but then remembers all the work she and her husband have to do during spring and summer. To buy Ann nice things and to pay off their mortgage sooner, John works with no hired help. He doesn't realize that Ann would prefer to spend time with him. All the work makes him seem older, uglier, and stupider. She thinks with dread about all the springs and summers that lay in their future.
Ann chides herself for having negative thoughts about John. She continues painting and stoking the fire. Outside the wind is gathering strength. She worries about a storm kicking up that will be bad enough to prevent John from coming home that night. She bakes cakes in anticipation of the evening of playing cards with Steven and John. Her feelings toward John oscillate between resentment for John leaving her alone and shame for thinking ill of him.
As it gets darker, Ann decides she must feed their animals in the barn while it is still light out. She bundles up and steps outside, where she is hit with the full force of the storm, which fills her mouth and face with snow. She struggles to get back inside the house. She worries about how the animals won't make it through the night without food and water, preemptively resenting John for the blame she expects he will lay on her.
Just then Steven arrives. Ann is relieved by his presence and the two embrace. However, Steven has an insolent smile that brings up contradictory feelings in Ann. Steven goes to do the chores in the barn. When he returns Ann is wearing a different dress and has redone her hair. She tries to avoid the feelings of illicit excitement his knowing smile brings up when they make eye contact, but as the two spend the afternoon together, and Steven insists John wouldn't try to cross the mountains in such a bad storm, Ann eventually acts on her attraction to Steven and the two sleep together.
Ann wakes to John standing over her. Steven sleeps soundly next to her while John seems to hold her throat and look sorrowfully into her eyes. She wants to cry out but feels paralyzed. Ann wakes again later and convinces herself that she had merely dreamt John's presence in the room. She relights the fire in the kitchen and sits next to Steven. She realizes she feels guilty for having cheated on John and that her future lies with John, not Steven. She resolves to make up her infidelity to John for the rest of their life together.
The next morning, Ann's neighbors find John's body frozen in the sound at the boundary of their property. She mentions how he crossed the mountain, but they explain that he was actually on the south side of the house, while the mountains are to the north. They assume he passed the house in the confusion of the storm.
Left alone with John's body, Ann kneels down and holds his hand. The story ends with Ann's eyes widening as she sees a smear of white paint on his palm.
