Bette is a 25 year-old-woman married to a 53-year-old man named Sergio, who owns a Marxist coffeehouse where she works. Bette, has always drank a lot, tries AA but decides she is different than the others in that they don't have fun drinking. She is nostalgic for where she grew up, in California, after moving to Chicago. She becomes pregnant and abandons alcohol.

Her husband, Sergio, is hung up on his dead wife, a political poet named Ferosa Rosario. One of her poems was read at Betty and Sergio's wedding in the coffeehouse. Sergio's mother, Matska, dislikes Bette and thinks she seduced Sergio into marrying her. People often mistake Sergio for Bette's father, which annoys Bette. Bette gets lots of stares as a pregnant woman and Sergio's gay friend Benjamin, formerly her friend too, becomes disinterested in her but stares at her belly with fascination.

Sergio starts leaving their dog at the nursing home where Matska lives late into Bette's pregnancy. She gets a call that the dog is digging up their fence and she has to come pick it up, then goes into labor. She tries to contact Sergio, but can't reach him. Sergio and Benjamin are celebrating the end of the Persian Gulf War and disconnected the phones to not be disrupted. She drinks alcohol, then takes a cab to the hospital. Sergio arrives in time to cut the cord. One of the nurses comments it's unusual for a grandfather to be present.

Bette begins to see Sergio, who is aging, as baby-like. She sees him as needy and grabbing. She dreads his touch and relishes the hours she has alone. When he gets home, she complains of exhaustion. She's disappointed when the obstetrician says they can have sex again. She begins to contemplate divorce.