Sophia is a nine-year-old girl whose mother died fourteen months ago, from something in her brain that Sophia imagines like a balloon popping, presumably a stroke. Sophia's dad is mean to her and often drinking. Sophia finds comfort in her dog Ketchup, who her mom found once as a stray in the backyard and took in. She also finds comfort in nature, fondly remembering looking at leaves moving in the creek with her mother and imagining that "a leaf is a kind of love." Though she enjoys learning, Sophia doesn't like school, where the other kids stare at her and are mean. Sophia's father has a new girlfriend, Betsy, who is allergic to dogs. He makes Sophia tie Ketchup up outside before she comes over. When she is over, Ketchup keeps barking and Sophia's dad is really rude about it, telling Sophia to "Shut that dog up" and not to "get mouthy" with Betsy when Sophia does so much as tell Betsy her name. Sophia walks Ketchup by the creek and imagines her mother lying in the earth dreaming of her and Ketchup.

Sophia's dad comes to tuck her into bed and tells her people matter more than dogs, that she can't embarrass him again, that this doesn't mean he's forgetting her mother, and that Ketchup is sleeping outside from now on. Sophia hears her dad and Betsy having sex in the other room and imagines them like sloshing soap suds. Then she hears them watching TV. In the middle of the night, Sophia is woken by barking. She sneaks outside with her blanket and lies down in the grass with Ketchup, where the two fall asleep together.