At the age of six, the girl finds out that she has the powers to see someone’s death before it happens. It first occurs to her parents, whom she knows will die in a car crash. She tells them not to drive on the day of, but they do, and they die while she stays with a neighbor. On television, she sees the news of it.

Over time, the girl tries to cope with her visions. In a foster home, she meets a boy whom, upon touching his hand, she finds out will die in two years. From then on, they become best friends. When he eventually dies, she shows no remorse, and her roommate lambastes her for her carelessness. She feels futility about everything in the world.

By the age of twenty-two, the girl becomes a woman who goes to bars often to hang out and bring home other lonely people. She’s trying to become a painter and sell paintings. She reveals her power of foresight, either to scare men off or attract them. She continues a routine where she tells her suitors when they will die and hooks up with them after. After a few years, when she turns twenty-five, she meets the man who becomes the love of her life.

At a bar, the woman meets the man. They talk for a little while. She tells him that he’s a painter. He says he’s a musician. He asks her why she’s traveling around so much. Eventually, she reveals her power. He’s intrigued and asks her when he’ll die. She writes his death down on a napkin and gives it to him. He doesn’t look. They go to bed after. In the morning, he asks how many years he has. She says he has forty. He says that’s enough to be with her. From then on, they stick together, even though she tries to pull away, and he never cares to ask about the future again. They enjoy a date at the park.

After a year, the woman and man are still in love. She moves in and turns part of his apartment into a studio to paint. One year later, she lashes out at him and doesn’t know why he wants to be with her. He calms her down and says that they’re perfect together. She doesn’t yet know how to love him. She tells him that she’s pregnant.

A decade later, the woman still sells her paintings, and the man works in an office. They own a house in the suburbs, where they raise their two kids. Whenever they bombard her with questions, she only answers the unserious ones, never wanting to broach the matter of what life really is. She becomes a soccer mom and enjoys it. Now, she wears gloves, so that she doesn’t find out when people die. Her kids ask her about it, but she never answers, and her husband covers for her. Eventually, she feels more and more strangled by being in a family.

When their eldest boy dies, the woman and man struggle through grief. In their house, he accuses her of not telling him when their eldest son would die. He says he could’ve done something, but she says he couldn’t have. She retaliates, saying she never wanted to be a housewife with kids. He then leaves, but he comes back the next day. They remark on how wonderful they marriage has been before filing for divorce.

For decades, the woman and man remain divorced. Their only son does well in school, goes to a good college, and becomes an engineer. At sixty, the woman lives a comfortable, mundane life. One day, she calls her son and asks when he’ll come over. He says he’ll come soon, with his grandkids. He asks her if she’s sad. She says that she’s not. He asks her how her grief meetings are going, and she admits she hasn’t been going. He tries to get her to stop drinking.

Once, the woman goes to a local bar with a familiar flyer. There, she finds out that the man is playing music. After the performance, they spot each other and catch up, though the man has a wife now. Alone, in the rain, the woman goes home alone, but the next day, the man comes over and tells her how much he has missed her, and they make love. From then on, they get back together, and their son is happy for it. For months and months, they stay together, even though the woman knows he will soon die. They then go to the park where they first met. He says that he’s okay after seeing his doctor. He then shows her a journal where he has kept all these parts of them remembered.

In the kitchen, the man is dancing to music as he cooks. The woman and son come in and watch him dancing, still attached to his oxygen tank. He then bleeds from his nose and falls down, whispering the woman’s name before he goes.

All of this is elaborated in a letter written by the man, which he writes as he’s in the hospital room. Meanwhile, the woman is in a wheelchair, and her memory is failing her. He reminisces about the park and how it’s up to the man to remember these kinds of things, with his journal. He wants her to know, through his letter, that she lived a good and long life, one not filled with the death she was so used to seeing. He wants to give her the letter so she can always have it and remember who she is whenever the need comes.