Tom and Annie are Molly's parents, and they have decided that Molly should go to boarding school. It was Annie's idea; she wants to give Molly some freedom and hopes that she will not be afraid a year after her sister Martha choked on a piece of bread and died. The California family does a tour of boarding schools in the Northeast, with Tom and Annie waiting back at each one while Molly goes in for interviews. The family stays in different motels and visits different schools each night.

Back at home, Martha's room has become the guest room, though no guests stay there, and all of Martha's belongings remain in the room. Martha had a boyfriend named Dwight who drove a monster truck named Bear. Tom and Annie did not like Dwight or Bear very much. The family lives near a canyon in California, where it's always warm and rains. Their home is very different, very far from the cold winters of New England.

At one school, Tom and Annie walk around while Molly is being interviewed. The interviewer asks Molly weird questions while Annie tries to get into a barn at the school. After the interview, Molly reveals that she does not want to go to boarding school, that she does not want to have to follow all the rules, that she is bored and thinks that her parents want to send her to school in New England so they can pretend that she and Martha are simply far away. Molly thinks about how she does not believe in God because God would not let someone die by choking on a piece of bread.

At another school, Molly tells her tour guide that her sister Martha attended school there and that she was friends with the dead boy to whom the new hockey rink is dedicated. She feels that she is creating a life for Martha this way, giving her friends and hobbies. Later at the inn that day, the innkeeper tells the family to go ice skating on the beautiful lake outside the inn. Annie says no, but Tom decides to go outside and look at the ice. From a window, Molly watches her father glide along the frozen lake in his shoes, sees her mother join her father and take awkward steps along the ice. Her parents hug, and Molly watches, capturing the memory in her mind.