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A Clean, Well-Lighted Place begins with a description of a quiet, outdoor café at dusk. A deaf old man, who is a regular costumer at the café sits at a table under a tree, slowly drinking himself to a state of unconsciousness as usual. Preparing to close, two waiters speak to themselves about the elderly gentleman, one telling the other that the man tried to kill himself the week before. Soon the man demands another …

…all references to God and replaces them with “nada,” the Spanish word for “nothing.” On his way home, the waiter stops at a bar, telling the bartender that the bar is unpolished, reminding himself of his disdain for bars because they aren’t the clean, well-lighted places he relishes. He leaves the bar, knowing that he will not get to sleep until dawn. He tells himself, “it is probably only insomnia.” “Many must have it.”