Alise is a middle-aged woman with a 9-year-old son named Wes and a husband named Connor. They lived in Portland, Oregon, in the 2000s. Despite November, Wes has not removed his Mongolian nomad costume from Halloween, much to his father’s anger. Connor tries to convince Alise to violently take the costume from the boy, but Alise refuses.

Alise teaches ESL to immigrants. She has a favorite student, a 40-year-old former engineer from Pakistan named Ismail, who is separated from his family and dreams of owning a coffee shop. Alise enjoys speaking to him because he is a profound thinker but funny company. When Ismail reveals that his sons are in trouble but that he’d rather talk about _Austin Powers _to get his mind off it, Alise reacts by pelting him with books. Ismail reciprocates, and the two feel healed because of that episode.

After returning home from class, Connor decides he’s had enough of Wes’s behavior. He tries to strip the boy of his costume, so Wes removes his clothes and runs naked into the snow. His parents find him and carry him home. For a second, it feels like everything­–Alise’s difficult parenting, her encroaching separation from Connor, Connor’s grief at his father’s death, the fact that nothing in her life turned out exactly the way she wanted it–will be acceptable.