Martha Collins is a grieving widow and poet who recently lost her partner of thirty years. Unable to accept the sudden reality of his death, she repeatedly calls his old cellphone and landline numbers just to hear the generic voice of the phone company. She channels her denial and pain by transcribing the audio recordings, cutting up the words, and rearranging them into a collage.

The husband is the deceased spouse of the speaker, having died suddenly following a series of predatory phone calls. He suffered from a diseased heart that impaired his brain function, which caused him to believe the fake IRS agents threatening him with arrest. His physical absence leaves a void that the automated phone recordings fail to fill.

The scammers are an unidentified group of callers who target vulnerable individuals over the phone. They pretend to be government agents and threaten their targets with arrest for fabricated tax mistakes. Their aggressive tactics induce fatal stress in their victims.