A woman named Elaine returns to her home movies to watch them alone and remember the story of how her marriage fell apart. Much of the story is conveyed through descriptions of the films themselves, which consists of shots of birthday parties and dinner gatherings, interspersed with peeks into the protagonist's thoughts. Elaine's husband, Nathan, was cheating on her with the next door neighbor, Samantha. However, the reader does not know this from the beginning; they are originally only given cause to suspect that something bad will happen. As the Elaine watches more and more of the movies, the reader realizes along with the Elaine of the past all that is happening. After Elaine watches the last movie, she remembers how Samantha mysteriously disappeared and leads the reader to believe that she was responsible for doing so. The story ends as Elaine rereads a note from Nathan telling her that he is leaving her for another woman named Connie.