A 24-year-old writer attends a writing workshop featuring many prominent writers, and her work is recognized as very promising. While she is there, she meets an author whose work she loves; she feels she knows him through the way his narrators speak. His initial standoffish demeanor disappoints her slightly, as it does not match the person she expected him to be. She is still enamored by him, to the extent that she approaches him and invites him to get a coffee with her. As she gets to know him better, she realizes that her feelings have grown for him. Though she did not initially intend to, she sleeps with him. After they sleep together, she moves in with him. She takes note of all the quirks of his life, including the house he lives in, his friends and hobbies, his interests, and his personality. She enjoys being with him, but she is somewhat dissatisfied by the fact that she has upended her life for him without him doing the same. Her lack of fulfillment increases, until one day she gets sick, at which point she asks to move to an apartment he rents until she gets well. Once she does, she decides to leave, and he does not attempt to stop her from doing so, something that reaffirms her choice. After twelve years pass, the writer has advanced considerably: she has written three books, mothered a child, gotten a university job, and settled firmly into a community. While in a bookstore with her friends, she notices her ex-lover, but he does not see her at first. She looks him over, but does not greet him. Instead, she leaves, and he only barely gets to interact with her. She reflects on a book he wrote which was clearly about her, and realizes that his writing was somewhat unrealistic and self-focused.