Ruth prepares rolls for a picnic with her husband's coworkers at a mountain near their company home in rural Washington state. She dreads the small talk with company wives who are only interested in shallow, petty gossip, and the toxic masculinity of the men who will direct the women's day. They never make it to the picnic. Instead, Ruth continues to wake up feeling sick and reliving the morning of the company picnic, listening to her husband mumble through the door as he dresses for the day, preparing rolls, and loading into the backseat of the car with a chatty company wife she detests. Inside, she can hear a call from something she does not know by name but recognizes clearly. She longs to run to it and reunite with the being that seems to possess her body and soul. After days and days living the same small life in a circular repetition of mundane annoyances and discontentment, Ruth stabs her husband with a kitchen knife. She tells the company men he is sick when they stop by the house to pick them up for the picnic. She sneaks out the back window and drives until she is in the middle of nowhere. She rips out her eyeballs and the being enters into her body through her mouth, occupying her corpse and using it to navigate the natural world.