The girl is being taken by her parents to her aunt’s house. Her parents bring in her luggage and tell her not to cause any further problems. After her parents leave, the girl catches up with her cousin, whom she grew up with and used to do everything with at their grandmother’s. She tries to sleep later that night, but she is kept awake by everything: how she’ll be put away for the summer and fall, effectively missing a semester of school. She wonders how her lover will find her or reach her. She tries to compose a letter to him.

In the morning, the cousin tells the girl that her aunt and uncle don’t want to deal with her, hence why the cousin is responsible for her now. The girl regrets what she did, after which she tells the cousin to deliver her letter and try to talk to her lover whenever she’s nearby his town. The cousin rejects her request. They have breakfast and do chores. The girl reminisces on how she first met her lover last summer when she was hanging with her cousin. From then on, every time the girl visits her grandmother and cousin, she wants to be near him. Through the ensuing school year, they write letters back and forth.

Now, the girl is wrangling chickens in her aunt’s coop. She tries to catch one for family dinner, but she fails, causing the cousin to do it herself. Later at dinner, the girl speaks out of turn, which makes her uncle and aunt scold her, as well as criticize her for having a baby so young. Her aunt says that if her grandmother ever finds out about her baby—and its father—she’ll get thoroughly upset with the girl’s lover. The girl asks why any of them put up with her and sneak around for her. Her aunt says that it’s what family does.

The cousin tells the girl that her grandmother is coming tomorrow, so they take her belongings out of her current room and move it into the cousin’s room. They sleep in the same bed together, and by morning, she decides to stay inside all day to read, since she can’t be seen by her grandmother. Through the days, she stays hidden in her cousin’s room, reading books and writing letters to her lover. She thinks back to when she first found out she was pregnant, how she first told her lover by letter but never got a reply from him, how she told her parents who then resolved to send her away during her pregnancy.

One day, the cousin says that she’ll be going with her grandmother back to her town, after which the girl asks if she can drop off her letters to her lover. She wonders if she even got her first one about the pregnancy. She thinks about how he must still love her. Through the summer, the girl still stays holed up in her cousin’s room, no longer interested in reading. When the cousin comes back from traveling, she tells the girl that her lover is now gone, enlisted in the military. The cousin tells the girl to stop thinking about her lover and that she’s sick of her yapping. Alone, the girl reminisces to a long-ago night when she, her cousin, and the boy hung out on Easter weekend, in which the cousin caught them making love in his car.

On a September morning, the cousin says that her school will have Sadies. Meanwhile, the girl starts experiencing pains from her pregnancy. The cousin takes care of her and eventually asks what she’ll name her child. The cousin thinks it’ll be a daughter. Later on, as she enters her third trimester, the girl experiences more pain than ever before. She struggles to write letters. One day, she decides to write a letter to her child instead. All the while, the cousin picks out dresses for Sadies. She gets a midwife involved for the girl, who says that the girl will be fine for her pregnancy and that she won’t need a doctor despite her current pains.

As her pregnancy gets closer, the girl’s grip on reality slips. She loses track of time, letting the days go by. She hears voices and sounds all throughout the house. One day, the cousin says that her parents will be coming shortly to get her back. Quickly, the girl writes another letter to her baby. Three days later, the girl wakes up to see her cousin dressed up for Sadies. They talk for a little, and briefly, the cousin reveals to the girl that her lover’s mother knew about the whole thing and that the prospect of marriage between her and the lover is called off. She tells the girl to simply forget about him now and move on, as there was never a chance that their families would allow for pregnancy and marriage to continue.

Later, the girl hears a car pulling in nearby. She know it’s her lover’s car. She runs down to meet him, but she eventually finds out that he was the one whom the cousin asked out to Sadies. The two of them kiss in front of her, and the girl struggles to figure out what’s going on. Her aunt then says that it’s lovely for the two of them to be together. Everyone heads for inside the house, but when the aunt opens the door, a mouse scurries out, causing everyone to scream. The girl falls to the floor, and she clutches at her belly. She feels at ease after finding out the truth of everything.