Jack, a summer student at the University of Minnesota from New Mexico, is preparing for a visit from Queenie, the love of his life who he’s known since childhood. While preparing, Jack’s friends Lief and Thomas stop in and snide Jack about Queenie’s sleeping arrangement in light of the school’s restrictive visitation policy. When Queenie calls Jack at the bus depot, Jack runs downtown to meet her and they have lunch at a nearby cafe, where Jack notices Queenie has taken up smoking. The pair head back to Jack’s dorm we he unsuccessfully plies Queenie into intimacy. After a second awkward attempt, Jack and Queenie share that they’ve both lost their virginity; Jack to his neurotic ex, Becky, and Queenie to a sterile teachers assistant at a local university. After they talk, Jack assuages a pregnancy-anxious Queenie and the two have sex, leaving them both uneasy and tentative. 

The next day, Jack and Queenie wake up for Sunday service and get into an argument about why Jack has to sneak Queenie around his dorm. After service, the pair have a meal at The Big Dipper, “the only descent restaurant in town”, where Jack grapples with how he and Queenie have grown apart. Later in the evening, Queenie shares that she’s been with other people besides the sterile teacher’s assistant, other college students and Jack’s best friends— Gary James and Don Dark— and that she’s pregnant. Jack takes the news nonchalantly, and suggests that they break up because of how different they are then they used to be when they were younger. Queenie reacts poorly, but the two reconcile later in the evening, both feeling more comfortable and at ease with each other. The next day, Jack sees Queenie off at the bus station where she confirms that she is pregnant by Don Dark. Jack returns to his dorm to try and distract himself from the thought of Queenie.