Briggs, a middle-aged divorcee living on a ranch in Montana, learns that his old friend from Yale, Erik Faucher, is being pursued on charges of embezzlement. Not long after, Faucher shows up to Briggs’s house in Montana. He brings a young woman, who he sleeps with the first night that he’s there. She goes to work, and Faucher and Briggs take a walk. They go to a restaurant where Faucher is rude and belligerent towards the various strangers around them, angering Briggs and making him wonder why he was even friends with the man in the first place. In the middle of the night, government agents come to take Faucher away. Despite Briggs having done nothing to lead to his arrest, Faucher still blames him. A couple of months later, Briggs is in Boston and decides to visit Faucher in prison, but Faucher still blames him and refuses to see him. On the plane back to Montana, Briggs breathes a sigh of relief and exclaims that, at last, he is free from his terrible friend. The stranger in the seat next to him doubts his freedom; the saga with Faucher will never end.