The man likes to take Greyhound buses. His friend doesn’t, would rather drive or hitch. One day, the two decide to race from Washington State to Southern California: the man takes the Greyhound, whereas his friend drives. The man wins, which makes the friend bitter.

The man recalls the people he finds on the bus. One year, he spots a recently released prisoner who chats up a lady beside him, and they proceed to get off on one stop together, holding handings. Another time, a guy offers to pay for his coffee during a stop at a diner, and after he does, he talks to him about how Greyhounds are miserable but iconic. A third time, a woman tells him about how there are vortexes across the world which serve as reservoirs of energy. On the Greyhound, the man thinks that he learns a lot from other people.

One spring, the man and his friend go up to Washington State to an apple orchard. Every year, they go to pick apples. That specific spring, they see a woman whom the man immediately crushes on, though she disappears in the blink of an eye. The man recalls her job, which is to saw off the dead limbs of trees and treat them. One day, they meet, and the man invites her to smoke with him, which she declines. Every time they meet henceforth, which is every few days on the orchard, the man and his crush have short conversations. His friend tells him to keep dreaming. Neither of them know much about romance.

On one of their longer conversations, the man learns more about the crush. She’s from Maine and probably won’t be coming to the orchard next spring. When asked why, she says that she’s trying to get a real job as a carpenter. From then on, the man thinks about her a lot. He thinks she’s the most beautiful woman in America—even though he’s seen plenty of beautiful women on the Greyhound—and fantasizes about her. One fall, he wonders if she’ll come to the orchard, but a foreman tells him that she’ll only be coming by next spring.

By November of that year, the man takes the Greyhound to Phoenix to pick cotton. On the way, he meets a stranger who allegedly knows him. The stranger is hiding out from police, who are purportedly chasing him. Throughout the coming winter, he travels through the country with the Greyhound to pick crop after crop. Over two days through Missouri and Kansas, he meets a young man whom he gets high with. When they get back on the bus, they fall asleep beside one another and have an intimate moment, of which the man isn’t very clear about when he finally wakes. After six hours, the bus pulls into Utah, still bound for Idaho, and the young man switches seats.

When the man finally gets to Washington, he runs into his friend again. He asks about the crush, who isn’t yet here, though the man has a good feeling she will. They keep working through the days, yet she doesn’t show. In the middle of the night, they’re awakened by police officers, who restrain the man and inform him that his friend is hospitalized for blood alcohol poisoning. They repeatedly ask for someone to accompany them to the hospital, but everyone is fearful of interacting with the law. Some guy chooses to go, and the police disperse.

The next morning, the man doesn’t see his friend or anyone else he knows. Everyone is worried. Later that day, someone comes to inform everyone that the friend won’t make it. The man walks off, looking for a drink even though drinking is what killed his friend. He misses work for the next few days, continuing to wander aimlessly alone. He knows, too, that his crush won’t show anytime soon. He sits at the lake, looks for his friend in town, and takes off to someplace new.