Alex Moore is an assistant professor at Clement College juggling multiple new prospects—her approaching marriage to Malcolm and the college's consideration of her tenure. Months prior, Alex had been with Malcolm visiting her half-brother, Piet, in Australia. Piet pushed the two to go duck hunting with him, and Alex's only shot ended up mistaking an endangered albatross for a duck, which resulted in hefty fines and a story to share with her coworkers. Upon her return to the college, Alex teaches a class about literature with a student named Eden Su. Though Eden is a brilliant student—which is evident in her essays—she hardly participates in class, which prompts Alex to ask her to have a meeting about her participation. During the meeting, Alex mistakenly assumes Eden to be an exchange student. Eden drops the class in a letter to the department, citing Alex's racist assumption of her, and makes a claim with the Minority Student Council. Alex is facing trouble professionally, but she also has conflict in her engagement to Malcolm. Long past the honeymoon phase, Malcolm has since stopped calling Alex beautiful, and though she tries not to be put off by it, she is. She wonders how Malcolm sees her, and with the growing conflict with Eden, she begin s to wonder how her students and coworkers see her as well. In a drunken stupor, upset about the grievance with Eden, Alex calls off the wedding with Malcolm. The conflict with Eden is only heightened by Alex's behavior, as she shows up to class partially drunk and vomits on two students' shoes, then later directly confronts Eden and tries to lecture her about the assumptions that everyone makes about each other. In an attempt to save her from herself, Piet shows up to remedy her marriage, and her coworker, Tossman, fills in for her in her class and attempts to cheer her up. Once her marriage is saved, with Malcolm finally complimenting Alex without her needing to beg for it, she is able to take on the consequences of her professional misconduct. Some time later, (it is unclear about what the result of her misconduct was) Alex has a new job at the state university. Years later, telling a new story, this time of conflict to Alex is no longer about the albatross, her marriage, or Eden Su, but rather about how sweet Tossman had been to her the year before he killed himself. Tossman's suicide was just another example of a misinterpretation Alex had made, assuming that nothing was wrong with him, as he helped her at her lowest.