A man's investment in horse racing and a particular horse is contrasted with his general disregard for his family. Married to a woman eight years his junior, Billy is uninterested in Linda's struggles through pregnancy and instead opts to spend his time and devotion on a horse named Raven's Wing. Raven's Wing suffers an injury to his leg that ends his racing career and, presumably his life, though his owners choose instead to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into healing him for breeding. Billy, who had been betting on Raven's Wing up until his incident, closely follows the harrowing story of Raven's Wing's recovery, which includes two surgeries that take several hours each. On the other hand, Linda, who has stopped showering and other hygienic habits during the five-ish months that she has been pregnant, receives little sympathetic attention from Billy. At times when Linda attempts to spark conversation with her husband about horse racing, Billy instead chooses to berate her about her inability to understand the complexities of the racing world. In particular, Linda can't comprehend why the horse would get so much money and effort spent to save its life, claiming that even a human wouldn't get that much treatment. Linda makes clear to Billy in multiple ways that she feels worthless, yet he is unresponsive to her plight. Instead Billy only sees how she has let herself go, and how she mirrors his past wife, whom he now pays child support for, which causes resentment towards her. Billy abuses Linda mentally and physically, and questions if their marriage is a viable investment. Linda is consistently placed in juxtaposition to Raven's Wing, whom Billy admires and puts effort into being close to, by visiting him after his surgeries. By the end, Billy is increasingly losing interest in his wife's attempts to rouse him, opting instead to devote himself to the horse.