American Wife Timeline and Summary

While sitting at the window and looking out at the square, the American wife spots a cat in the rain.
She tells her husband that she's going to go downstairs to get it.
Downstairs at the hotel, the wife has a brief exchange with the hotel owner about the rain. We hear about all the different little things she likes about him. She turns to go out into the square.
As she opens the door, a maid appears with an umbrella and goes out with her.
They look under the table but they do not find the cat, and return inside.
The hotel owner bows from his desk as the American wife passes. She is filled with a sense of importance in his presence.
The American wife returns to the hotel room where her husband is still reading.
She sits in front of a mirror, looks at her profile, and asks if she would look better with long hair. Her husband tells her she wouldn't, and she begins to talk about the things she feels she wants: a cat, long hair that she can feel and twist, candles, silver, and for it to be spring outside.
The husband tells her to shut up. She pulls back to one simple desire: she wants a cat.
As the room grows darker, there's a knock at the door. It's the maid, and she's holding a cat that the hotel owner asked her to bring to the wife.