A woman lives in an apartment by herself about ten miles from where her son Davey lives with a foster family, the Bakers. She had lost her son to the foster care system a little over two years ago. Her husband Patrick, who she had married at seventeen-years-old, had been an orderly at the hospital and had used his position to steal drugs and sell them for profit. She and Patrick took the drugs as they pleased, and only later did the woman realize she had been addicted to Dilaudid. Her husband gets caught drunk driving with stolen drugs in his backseat and is sentenced to prison for twenty five years.

As the woman tries to get her son back, she works as a waitress with another woman named Prissy and her boss Tim, who is prone to throwing fits due to his temper. She has an apartment that she keeps perfectly clean in case any social worker ever comes, but they never do. She has furniture from Goodwill and pots that she hangs up on the wall. About twice a week, the pots fall off the wall when her neighbor next door abuses his wife Susan and throws her against the shared apartment wall.

The woman calls her lawyers to find out news about getting Davey back, but the case is constantly delayed. The Bakers allow the woman visits to her son, and the woman thinks that the Bakers are nice enough, though she knows they are attempting to adopt her son. When the case finally moves forward, the woman gets the call that the Bakers have been granted rights to Davey. Her lawyer tells her it would be a waste of money to go to court. She reflects on how she lost Davey when she was going through drug withdrawal. Davey was banging pots and pans on the floor, trying to get his mother's attention, and would not stop. His mother got so fed up that, in her half-conscious state, she picked Davey up and threw him against the wall, breaking his leg. She took him to the hospital. She could not think of a lie to tell the doctor, so she told him the truth.

After the woman learns that she has lost her son for good, she thinks about the fact that he has been lost for two years now. She feels that no good or change can come out of anything, that she just has to get used to living without him. She hears the man beating up his wife next door and is tired of the fact that she has come to expect it. She picks up one of the skillets that fell off the wall, goes next door, and slams it against the husband's face. She then tells Susan that she can come with her to Norfolk, she is leaving that very moment, but Susan just stares at her with scared eyes. The woman drives away, thinking about how the last time she had hurt someone she had not meant to, but this time, she had. Still, she thinks, she does not know what she has done.