Abel is a man in his sixties who is trying to figure out what he wants to do with the rest of his life. He is about a year into his retirement, and a year post the death of his wife. He is taking Latin classes taught by Sylvia, who one day has car troubles. She discovers that he is an inventor when he fixes her car up. She tries to warm up to him, but he is unresponsive, seemingly because of his status as a widow. When a friend of Sylvia, Mildred, is trying to study a species of insect that has a very difficult environment to recreate artificially, Sylvia enlists the help of Abel. Though he declines designing it for them outright, not wanting to get involved, he gives them basic instructions and who to contact about getting it made. When the device arrives and they still have trouble getting it to work, he takes a hands-on approach and tinkers with it until it works perfectly, much to the delight of the two ladies. His encounter with Mildred leads him to the library to read up on entomology, discovering a phase called diapause, wherein a specimen may enter a period of suspended development, remaining inactive and uninvolved, much like Abel and Sylvia. Mildred attempts to encourage Sylvia to make a move on Abel, though she refuses as well, believing that any attempt may ruin the already tenuous relationship they have with Abel. The three get closer over the course of Mildred's experiment, at one point venturing out into the wild to observe animals in their natural habitat. While there, Sylvia has a sudden reaction and they rush her to the hospital to discover that she has lupus. At that point, Abel decides to leave his state of suspended development and write a translation of Latin poetry for Sylvia while she recovers. When he presents it to her, she smiled tearily and they settle in for the long night.