Enormous Wings

Pepper Mills is a 77-year-old retired English teacher from Flatbush, Brooklyn, now living in Austin, Texas. After she rear-ends a pickup truck driven by Father Frank, an Episcopal priest, he cuts up her driver's license on the side of the road. Her middle child, Alice, a lawyer, sides with the priest, and by September, Pepper's house has been sold and she moves into the Vista View Retirement Community, a sprawling continuing-care facility. Pepper resents the loss of her old house and her autonomy, and her ex-husband Roger, from whom she separated 25 years earlier, is already a resident. Her youngest child, Max, a professional arm wrestler who also works in corporate communications, helps her on move-in day.

Under pressure from her eldest daughter, Darcy, Pepper reluctantly attends a lecture at Vista View and reconnects with Father Frank, who is doing community service there. She washes his dirty truck as a gesture of goodwill, and her neighbor Moth Holden, a 78-year-old British retired science teacher, offers to help. The two bond over bawdy puns about chemistry and literature. At Vista View's "senior prom," Pepper meets Maisie and Dot, two women who become close friends, and she and Moth share a slow dance that leads to their first kiss.

Over the following days, Pepper and Moth go on modest dates constrained by their lack of driver's licenses. Moth reveals that his wife Louisa died of breast cancer 42 years ago at 33; they had planned to have children but never got the chance. Pepper discloses that she is a breast cancer survivor, which visibly shakes Moth. They deepen their relationship quickly and soon sleep together. Pepper reflects on how her cancer broke her marriage to Roger even as she recovered.

Pepper begins feeling queasy, dizzy, and woolly-headed. Darcy insists she see Dr. Kim, her GP, who runs extensive tests. Alice, a fiercely independent single mother of adopted seven-year-old twins, rushes to check on Pepper after Pepper fails to recognize her voice on the phone. The diagnosis shocks everyone: Pepper is approximately six weeks pregnant. Dr. Kim assures the family the pregnancy is not viable and will terminate on its own.

But the pregnancy does not terminate. At an eight-week ultrasound, Dr. Blankman, the head of gynecology, declares it healthy and progressing normally. When Pepper asks about an abortion, Dr. Kim explains that Texas law effectively prohibits it: The medical exception requires a patient to already be in a medical emergency before any action can be taken. Dr. Blankman calls the pregnancy a miracle, leaving the family furious. Pepper tells Moth, who panics initially but then expresses relief that she is not dying.

At a subsequent appointment, Dr. Kim reveals the likely cause: Protocol 183, a clinical drug trial Pepper participated in during her cancer treatment in the early 1980s. The trial combined a selective estrogen receptor modulator that blocked estrogen to fight cancer, which also stimulated ovulation as a side effect, with an experimental DNA therapy. Pepper is an extreme outlier; most trial participants have since died or undergone surgeries that would prevent pregnancy.

Moth then reveals a devastating connection. His wife Louisa was also in Protocol 183; it was the reason they emigrated from England to the United States. Louisa dropped out because the side effects made her sicker, and she died. Moth has carried guilt for decades, believing they made the wrong choice. He argues that the drug both destroyed and created life and that Pepper cannot choose to end the pregnancy. Pepper insists it is not his decision.

Alice organizes a secret trip to New York for an abortion, but Dr. Blankman calls Pepper in for a private meeting where he warns the procedure could kill her, threatens legal consequences for Dr. Kim and Alice, and implies he will alert the press. Shortly after, Pepper's medical information is leaked. A doctored photo of Pepper goes viral, and a horde of press, activists, and opportunists descends on Vista View, trapping residents inside. Pepper falls, begins bleeding, and is hospitalized, but the bleeding stops and the pregnancy continues. Pepper realizes Dr. Blankman must have leaked her information and cancels the New York trip to protect Alice, who has been contemplating a run for the Texas House of Representatives.

As the pregnancy becomes public, various groups try to claim Pepper. A trio from an anti-abortion organization called Family Futures asks her to be their spokeswoman; she refuses. A representative from Phymore Pharmaceuticals, the company behind Protocol 183, approaches her and asks to sequence her genome for fertility drugs; she refuses. Evangeline, a representative from the pro-choice organization She's Worldwide, infiltrates her apartment and asks Pepper to be the face of their campaign using digitally altered photos that exaggerate her frailty; Pepper refuses that too, objecting to the manipulation of her body even by those on her own side.

Meanwhile, Dot's cancer rapidly worsens. She throws Pepper a baby shower at Vista View, which becomes both a celebration and her farewell. Afterward, Dot moves to the nursing wing. When she panics that her feet may never touch the floor again, Pepper tells her to stand up, and she does. Dot later transfers to a hospice center, where she dies, leaving Pepper, Moth, and Maisie grieving. Dr. Kim puts Pepper on bed rest due to high blood pressure.

Pepper's 15-year-old granddaughter Lola, Darcy's daughter, arrives at her door in tears: Her boyfriend has broken up with her, and she is pregnant. Lola does not want the baby and sees no options in Texas. Pepper offers to drive her to a clinic in New Mexico. Moth insists on coming, and Maisie lends her driver's license to rent a car. At the clinic, protestors surround them, but Pepper emerges from the car, visibly and enormously pregnant, and the crowd falls silent. She takes Lola's hand and walks through. The procedure is brief, and Lola recovers quickly.

Driving back into Texas two miles past the state line, a deputy sheriff arrests Pepper for "abortion trafficking," claiming she transported a minor across state lines to terminate a pregnancy. He puts her in a cell and denies her water, food, and medication. Alone in the cell, Pepper's water breaks, followed by significant bleeding. The deputy calls for emergency transport, and Pepper is airlifted to a hospital.

Pepper undergoes an emergency cesarean section and delivers a healthy baby girl five weeks early. The family gathers, and the baby is named Bob, inspired by Moth's frequent British expression "Bob's your uncle," which Lola reinterprets to mean the baby is everyone's aunt. Pepper confesses to her children about Dr. Blankman's intimidation; Alice reveals she has already had his medical license revoked through a complaint to the state medical board.

In the closing chapters, Pepper addresses Bob directly, shifting to second person. She gets a new driver's license, buys a used car, and begins volunteering as an "abortion fairy," driving women who need abortions across state lines. Father Frank serves as her go-between, meeting her at a grocery store parking lot. He reveals that he was the one who stopped short on the road, causing the original fender bender, and apologizes for cutting up her license. On her first drive, Pepper transports a young woman named April, with baby Bob in the car seat. Pepper looks ahead: Alice will win her seat in the state legislature, Max will join She's Worldwide's communications team, and Moth will eventually join these drives. Eventually, Pepper will give up her license again, this time by her own choice. The novel ends with Bob saying "Da" to April, which Pepper interprets as yes: to helping, to bravery, to life on one's own terms.