Imogene and Herb, a married couple in their early thirties, live in rural Wyoming outside the city of Laramie. Imogene is a resource allocation manager for an engineering firm, and Herb teaches molecular phylogeny to undergraduate students. In September of 2022, they’re ready to start a family and begin trying to get pregnant. As months pass without success, they feel frustrated, but they know it takes many couples a full year to get pregnant. After more than a year, while spending Thanksgiving with Herb’s family in Minnesota, they downplay what a toll the effort is taking on them.

The backstory reveals that Imogene’s parents both died in a car crash when she was 21. Afterward, Imogene moved to Morocco, where she lived in Rabat for three years. As a woman, she couldn’t wear shorts or skirts or go outside with wet hair. For a time, she works with blind women through a Peace Corps initiative. Imogene had been dating Herb for four months before her parents’ death, and they kept the relationship going while she was in Morocco, mostly through letters.

In 2004, after 16 months of trying to get pregnant without success, Imogene and Herb undergo fertility testing and learn they have “dual-factor infertility.” Imogene has polycystic ovary syndrome, and Herb has severe deficits in sperm motility and density. The news is devastating, triggering feelings of guilt and shame. Imogene tries to stay positive, and Herb throws himself into physical labor: clearing the “graveyard of abandoned tires” from their pasture (87).

Imogene and Herb decide to do fertility treatments, though they’re incredibly expensive. The treatment protocol is intense and demanding, and it taxes Imogene’s body. By spring, her ovaries seem to be responding, moving toward measurements the doctor wants to see. However, Imogene’s boss chides her for missing too much work for medical appointments.

In May, the fertility clinic retrieves Imogene’s eggs and collects Herb’s sperm. The fertilization process yields two viable embryos, which the doctor transfers into Imogene’s uterus. Ten days later, Imogene and Herb learn that the embryos failed to implant. She isn’t pregnant.

Their disappointing efforts to get pregnant take a toll on Imogene and Herb’s relationship. Imogene retreats emotionally and won’t talk to Herb about it. Friends, family, and acquaintances all seem to say the wrong things, which are too cliché or trigger jealousy or shame. The financial burden of fertility treatments requires Herb to teach summer biology courses for extra income. An attractive young woman in his class named Misty sends Herb an e-mail suggesting she has feelings for him, and he’s tempted.

After the summer course ends, Herb drinks a pitcher of beer and goes to Misty’s swim meet. He chooses to leave, however, before anything inappropriate can happen. When he gets home, Imogene agrees to try fertility treatments one more time, and they start the treatment cycle in October. Herb empties his retirement savings to afford it.

On the day of Imogene’s egg retrieval, she and Herb drive through a terrible snowstorm on the way to the fertility clinic in Cheyenne. This time the fertilization process yields three viable embryos. Once again, they’ll have to wait 10 days to find out if she’s pregnant. As they prepare for the news, Herb seeks reassurance that Imogene still loves him and that everything will be okay, and Imogene gives it.