Two women live in Greenwich Villlage and decide to share a studio apartment. Pneumonia is threatening their artist colony.Johnsy is near death and lying in bed. She's waiting for the last leaf to fall off of an ivy vine. She can see it through her window.
Johnsy says,"I’m tired of thinking," "I want to turn loose my hold on everything, and go sailing down, down, just like one of those poor, tired leaves".
The man who lives in the apt. below ends up helping her. Mr. Behrman is his name. He's a painter but hasn't worked on his own painting in 40 years. This Mr. Behrman is the typical OHenry hero. The last day before he dies he makes a painting and puts it outside her window.This is it : "some scattered brushes, and a palette with green and yellow colors mixed on it . . . it’s Behrman’s masterpiece--he painted it [a leaf] there the night that the last leaf fell"(19), Sue tells Johnsy.