Errol, the deputy, knocks on Ollie Cobb’s door, nervous. When Ollie answers, he hesitantly tells her that her husband Lenny has passed away. In shock, Ollie slams the door shut, slamming it onto Errol’s foot. Errol returns to his truck, and his coffee falls off the dash and burns his leg.  At the sound of Ollie rubbing her shoulder against the fridge, knocking off magnets as a way to grieve, Ollie’s four young children become excited that they have a reason to be awake. The oldest child, twelve-year-old Aspen, is the only one who understands that something is wrong. A herdsman named Jarrell soon enters the home, having seen the deputy stop by and assuming that Lenny’s time has come. Jarrell tells the children to go upstairs, but when he returns downstairs, Ollie is gone. Jarrell goes home to his apartment, and Ollie hides under her truck, eyes squeezed shut.  Ollie stays out in the cold so long that the ends of her fingers and most of her toes and ears have to be removed at the hospital. Upon returning home, she continues to do tasks around the farm, like milking the cows, and Jarrell tries to help out and keep her company but fears seeing what is left of her ears. When it is time for Lenny’s funeral, Jarrell attends alone.  One day while arriving to help Ollie, Jarrell accidentally walks in on her with her hair pulled up, and he realizes that she does not have ears anymore and has lost them entirely in surgery. The next time he drives up to Ollie’s home, Ollie has a rifle and shoots the tires of his truck, making it lurch. Twenty-five minutes later, Ollie’s children come to check on Jarrell and see that he is crying. During the summer, Jarrell takes the kids to play catch and wade in the water, but Ollie never joins. He continues to help around the house. In September, Jarrell piles the kids into the back of Ollie’s truck, readying them for a trip. As he pulls out of the parked position, however, the truck bobs up and down and he realizes he has run something over. Jarrell screams as he realizes Ollie was hiding beneath the truck again.