Sue and Johnsy were two artists who shared a
studio in an art colony in Greenwich Village and that
the community was under attack by a disease,
pneumonia, which during a very cold winter killed a
large number of residents in the area. Johnsy was
struck by the disease and became extremely ill.
Johnsy's refused to fight the disease, literally giving up
and accepting the fact that she is going to die. The
doctor attempts to encourage her to fight back but
Johnsy has decided that she will die as soon as the last
leaf has fallen from a vine that she can see through her
window.
The storm rages in the city expecting all the ivy
leaves will fall. The climactic expectation is that once
this leaf has fallen, Johnsy will die.
Johnsy survives, however, because when she looks
out of her window she notices the leaf still clinging to
the vine and this inspires her to live.
An old artist, named Behrman, who lives in the same
building as the girls, braves a storm one night to
paint a leaf on the wall — a leaf that will never fall