In a country torn by war, a woman works as a bell-ringer. There used to be many more in the tower, but one by one the bells were taken: metal for the war-machine. A man climbs the tower after hearing her play the one remaining bell. What seems at first a meeting of two lovers turns dark as the man tries to claim the bell. They need the metal for bullets. The woman begs him to leave it. The bell is all she has, all that keeps her going. He makes a dark offer, and she agrees.

Brief, disjunct vocal lines reflect the tension in a discussion between a bell ringer and a strange man. Repeated high Cs in the right hand of the piano recall the tolling of the bell in its tower; the same pitch, when it reappears several octaves lower, brings a percussive, anxious energy to the scene as the conversation grows increasingly disturbing.