In post-WWII Canada, veteran Ray Elliot is a night police officer in Maverley charged with escorting Leah home from her job at the local movie theater. Leah’s religious father is strict in ensuring Leah does not watch or hear any of the movies for which she collects tickets, but Ray circumvents this rule by explaining some of the fundamentals of moviemaking—plots, sets, action, actors—while escorting Leah home. During a storm that shutters many of the businesses and roads in Maverley, Leah goes missing. When the weather clears up, a letter is delivered to the local minister which communicates that Leah has eloped with the minister’s son, a saxophone player in a jazz band. Ray and his sickly wife Isabel follow this news with interest, and Ray is surprised by how invested he feels in Leah’s wellbeing. As Isabel’s health deteriorates, Ray runs into Leah and her two infant children at a street corner, as does the new minister. The minister speaks with Leah about Sunday school and suggests that Leah’s religious upbringing would be carried on to her children. Isabel checks into a hospital in an unspecified city, and Ray visits her bedside frequently, even when she enters into a coma. Ray takes up permanent residence in the city and works in maintenance while visiting Isabel less and less as her condition fails to improve. While settling the sale of his house in Maverley, he hears town gossip about an affair Leah has had with the new town minister, resulting in her divorce and the loss of custody of her children. Ray feels lonely and isolated tending to his new life and inanimate wife. One day, while going to see his wife in the hospital, he sees Leah, who inquires about Isabel, and suggests she–Leah–stop by his apartment to help out every once in a while. Isabel dies that day, and while coping with the loss, Ray finds solace in the memories he has of Leah.