The 77-year-old narrator, Pepper, begins her story by recounting a minor car accident with an Episcopal priest. She is relieved to discover he shares her Brooklyn accent. However, after the narrator identifies herself as Jewish, the priest takes a knife and cuts her driver’s license into pieces. When the narrator tells her daughter, a lawyer named Alice, about the incident, Alice agrees that her mother should no longer be driving. By September, following the loss of her license, the narrator has sold her house and car and finds herself standing before the entrance to her new home, the Vista View Retirement Community.

Pepper and her youngest son, 43-year-old Max, stand outside the Vista View facility. Max, a professional arm wrestler with a corporate day job, tries to be positive, but the narrator mourns the loss of her old, rambling house and dislikes the bland, restrictive environment of her new home. Their conversation is interrupted by the narrator’s ex-husband, Roger, who is also a resident at Vista View. Max explains that their daughter Darcy is home supervising Lola and her boyfriend Lucas and that Alice is in an important meeting. After Roger leaves, Max points out that the large size of Vista View is a benefit, as it will be easier for his mother to avoid her ex-husband.