The poem begins with the memory of an ethics class when Pastan was a child. The teacher posed a question that in case of a fire in the museum which one would the children save, an old woman or a Rembrandt painting. The children who were immature could not understand the depth of the question, used to move restlessly on their chairs choosing the old woman once and the painting next time.
Sometimes the poet used to imagine that the old woman was her grandmother who wandered about in the museum. Once a student answered that the woman herself should decide whether she wanted to be saved or not. To this, the teacher replied that it was shirking of responsibility.
Many years later, the poet, now an almost old woman herself stands before the real painting in the museum and recollects the question posed to her years ago by her teacher. The maturity in her thinking now makes her realize that both life and art have equal value and realizes that moral values can be only learned from the reflection which comes through experience and maturity.
The mention of autumn season in the last stanza also emphasizes on the old age. The poet ends the poem saying that children do not have the maturity to understand the value of art or old age.
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