In Alaska, the woman goes to meet her sister at a restaurant. She gets on a crowded bus and sits next to a dog and a woman, who sleeps on her shoulder soon as the bus goes. The woman recalls how she started using the bus more after she lost her license for a DUI charge. Eventually, she gets into the restaurant and sits down in a booth with her sister, who she sees is pregnant. The woman recalls how her sister is pregnant with a second child and currently living with her daughter and wife in Oregon. A waitress comes up and informs them that there are tests in their restrooms to check for fetal alcohol syndrome. They order a bottle of wine, for the woman, despite her having do-not-serve on her license.

The woman recalls her family history. As kids, the woman and her sister are babysat by a nineteen-year-old sitter during a strange time in which her mother starts becoming absent. During that summer, the two sisters go to a strip mall to hang with the sitter’s boyfriend despite the sitter not wanting them to. There, the sitter’s boyfriend sexually assaults the woman. Afterward, the sitter’s boyfriend is arrested and convicted for a separate incident, and the sitter is fired from babysitting although placed in a job in the sisters’ father’s office as a receptionist.

During the same summer, the mother has an affair with the father’s best friend. The infidelity is revealed during a July party, during which the father brutally beats the mother. Days later, the sisters leave with their mother to British Columbia, planning to end up in Montreal. However, they spend less than a day in Montreal before turning back and heading back to Alaska, not even getting the chance to see a theater show that the mother bought tickets for. From then on, the woman’s memory is hazy, though the mother is hospitalized, the father buys a rancher for the mother to live in after her release, and the family is forever fractured in half.

From then on, the woman still lives with her mother in the rancher, while the sister lives with her father and the sitter. Through their childhoods, they visit each other and keep in touch, though the sister often tries to get the woman to move in with her. Regardless of her attempts, however, the woman still lives with her mother, who is now isolated and hardly goes outside. As the sister grows up, she gets a Bachelor’s, then a PhD, and falls in love with her wife in Oregon, where she has stayed since.

Now, at the restaurant, the woman and sister are having oysters. The sister tries to convince the woman yet again to leave her mother, as her father and the sitter are overextended and can no longer financially care for her mother. However, the sister offers to financially cover the mother’s expenses, including for a caretaker, on the condition that the woman leaves and has her own life. The woman simply eats her oysters and ponders her sister’s request. She negotiates and says that she wants a dog, which the sister is happy to oblige.

The woman leaves, briefly passing by the wine bar. She notices a bunch of her friends, whom she quickly recognizes. They all catch up, but a drunk guy comes up and tries to chat her up. To the friends’ disgust, the woman entertains him by eating a piece of calamari from him. Soon enough, the drunk guy’s friends come and try to chat everyone up. When a waitress comes, they order another bottle of wine. Slowly but surely, the friends leave, and the sister watches the woman as she’s surrounded by a bunch of drunk guys.

Eventually, the woman leaves and rejoins her friends and sister outside. They try to figure out what to do next or how to go home. The woman says that they can take the bus. Everyone laughs, as they don’t think one will come. However, one does, and everyone gets on. The dog from before is still there. On the bus, the sister admits that her wife kicked her out of the house and talks about how her wife finds her too overbearing. After some time, some of the other friends leave. With one friend left, the woman consoles her sister on the bus. Eventually, the three of them are forced off the bus.

The three women end up at a park that they remember from their childhood, though it looks nothing like they remember, as everything has been replaced. The sister goes up the slide, and everyone briefly argues about whether a pregnant woman can go on slides. All the while, the woman thinks back to the time when she, her sister, and her mother drove to Montreal. There, in Montreal, they wait for a train that’ll take them to the theater. However, before they can get on, everyone is screaming because a woman next to them, with shopping bags, has jumped in front of the train. Right after, the three of them drive back to Alaska. In the car, they wonder if everything will be okay.