A writer living in New York City addresses her late friend and mentor at length. In grief, her reflections on her unnamed friend move swiftly. She recalls their last conversation about the prevalence of blindness in Cambodian women in the 1980s, muses on the chemical composition of human tears, and worries about her impending deadlines.

At the memorial, the narrator eavesdrops on her literary friends' gossip. She recalls her graduate school writing course, which had been taught by her late friend, and how he used to sleep with all his students. His first wife had been a classmate. Wife Two, a jealous woman who hates the narrator, is writing a book about her famous ex-husband. Wife Three, an elegant, unemotional businesswoman, asks the narrator to meet her for coffee.

Over coffee, the writer worries about what Wife Three might want to know about her late husband. Instead, Wife Three needs a favor. Her husband left her a Great Dane rescue, and she doesn't know what to do with it.