The painting depicts a scene where the viewer has the opportunity to guess and imagine what happened over a cup of coffee a few minutes before in the depicted scene. The main character is sitting in a cafe a woman with a straight, slightly sarcastic face drinking coffee, in the foreground there is an empty chair and an unfinished cup of coffee. In the background, other cafe patrons are looking in one direction, perhaps seeing off the protagonist's companion, who has gotten up and left after a discussion.