A young boy regularly visits his grandmother in her dilapidated house. Recently, the town wanted to demolish it and set her up somewhere new, but the grandmother refused. The town acquiesced, but erected a wall between the house and the road.

One day, the boy races over to Gran’s and promises to help her finish their project of wallpapering the entire house. They are in the process of finishing the boy’s mother Mammy’s old room. This wallpaper is covered in palm trees. They have trouble getting the strips on straight, ultimately glueing them on a slant.

On Saint Patrick’s day, the boy attends Mass with his parents. His father heads off to the horse races, dropping the boy and Mammy at his grandmother’s afterward. Here, the boy and Mammy make dinner. Afterward, the boy does his homework very slowly to prolong their stay at the house. Mammy presses him to hurry up as it’s getting late but the boy continues to stall. He doesn’t want to leave because he knows his father will return home drunk from his gambling outing and his parents will argue about money. His grandmother joins him, smoking a cigarette and pulling out tea and cake. Then they play cards. Amidst their fun, a car comes smashing through the wall and into the house, crushing and killing Mammy.

The boy’s family hosts a wake and funeral. The boy feels strange listening to people talk about Mammy. After they bury her, the boy finds his father out in the forge. He tells the boy he’s unsure they’ll survive without Mammy. Upset, the boy runs over to his grandmother’s house, where she tells him Mammy wouldn’t have died if he’d just finished his homework and left when he was supposed to.

The boy keeps visiting his grandmother, whose smoking habit has intensified. They continue hanging the wallpaper. Then one day, Gran decides to light a large fire, burning all her old belongings. Then the house catches fire. Gran and the boy walk away, passing a combine harvester on their way. Rain starts to fall.

Frank Corso’s daughter Elisabeth Corso goes missing when she is nine. Frank and his wife have desperately searched for answers, to no avail.

One night, Frank pulls out the milk and studies Elizabeth’s picture on the carton. He drifts into thought, remembering Elizabeth losing her first tooth. A saddened Frank puts the carton away and goes to bed.

The next day, Frank finds his wife moving around in Elizabeth’s room. He joins her and tries to comfort her, but she pushes him away. He dismisses himself to the porch with some scotch and reads the paper. Finally he retreats to the bathroom and breaks down in tears.

The next day, Frank returns home to find his wife’s car missing from the drive. She left a note on the counter saying she is at her mom’s house. Frank goes into Elizabeth’s room and studies her belongings. He considers placing a call on Elizabeth’s phone but can’t think of anyone to contact. Lying on Elizabeth’s bed, he remembers the day she went missing. They were out in the back field together. One minute he could see her and the next minute she was gone. Police and detectives investigated but still have found nothing.

The following day, Frank gets himself a motel room where he watches television and eats takeout. Suddenly realizing Elizabeth could have returned in his absence, he calls his wife. When he tries to ask her about their daughter, his wife hangs up.

On Friday, Frank comes home to find his wife cooking dinner in an elaborate dress, jewelry, and makeup. Frank feels comforted that this might be a turning point. He accepts the drink she offers him and notices she set three places at the table. When he sits down, however, he is horrified to discover the soup is filled with chopped-up “passport photos of Elizabeth” (160). Frank demands to know what’s going on. His wife screams at him, accusing him of losing Elizabeth and confusing her by telling her fairy stories. She slaps Frank across the face and he slides down to his knees, clasping her blue dress, but she continues yelling. Even still, Frank feels better, convinced this is a start.

A young man leaves Cambridge, where he is studying at Harvard, to visit his mother and her new millionaire husband, Richard, at their beachside penthouse. He stays for several days, growing increasingly frustrated with being there. Then on his birthday, he overhears his mother and Richard arguing; his mother doesn’t want Richard to mention something to the young man. Standing on the balcony studying the ocean, the young man reflects on his grandmother Marcie’s story. His grandparents were Tennessee pig farmers. His grandmother always wanted to go to the beach because she’d never seen the ocean, but her husband would never take her. When he finally did, he gave her one hour to walk on the sand, almost leaving her behind. Marcie got back in the car with him and stayed married to a man who didn’t really love her.

The young man’s mother and stepfather take him out for a fancy birthday dinner. Mom is thrilled that he’s a Harvard student but Richard pokes fun at the young man. He has never liked Richard, who Mom married shortly after divorcing his father. When the millionaire steps away from the table, Mom tells the young man how proud she is of him and that she married the millionaire so he might inherit Richard’s money one day.

After the dinner, the young man takes a walk on the beach outside the penthouse. Alone, he again remembers his grandmother. He wonders why Marcie didn’t run away from her husband that day at the beach. She once told him that she was living the life she thought she was supposed to live. She took care of the young man when his parents were divorcing, too, and they became very close. Marcie has since died.

Looking out over the water, the young man suddenly understands that he will never marry. He takes off all of his clothes and plunges into the water. As the tide pulls him under, he tells himself he is going to return to Cambridge early. Finally he emerges from the current, crawling up the beach and panting heavily. He wishes he had a more typical life.