The unnamed protagonist and her girlfriend Julia have moved from America to Malacca, Malaysia, and seek work as teachers. They meet a kindly teacher named Mr. Mani who helps them find jobs at a school, run by the rude and haughty Mr. Narayanasamy. The two observe a bed that the hospitality instructors use for demonstrations on their way out. The protagonist half-jokingly teases Julia about how unobservant she is, and it is clear their relationship is strained.

The protagonist has a troublesome student named Shah who frequently skips class. He tires her and she has little pity for him, but Julia always argues his perspective and shows empathy for him. Shah's father comes to meet with the protagonist, and, afterward, the protagonist hears him abusing Shah.

The couple's work visas have been delayed. One day, they bathe together and enjoy a joyous intimate moment, but become distracted by the sound of a wounded man who moans outside their door every day. They move from their cheap hotel to a nicer but expensive hotel. At the new hotel, they find a drawing of two penises and a note—"I am waiting every night on the footbridge"—on the inside of their closet door.

They pay Mr. Mani a visit while passing his office one night and noticing the lights on. He has been sleeping there, drinking, and tells them his wife kicked him out. He tells them a folktale about a Malaysian man who fell in love with a big snake. He became engaged to a woman, and when he told the snake, the snake swallowed him. Mr. Mani says: "With love, there are always two: There is the snake who devours, and there is the one who cooperates by putting his head inside the snake's mouth."

The next day, a teacher at the school refers them to an apartment in the tallest building around, "Nine-Story Building." Their colleagues think it's a strange choice to live there. The principal requests that the protagonist and Julia punish two students who were caught kissing, and they refuse. The protagonist reflects how the two of them are seen as desexualized spinsters, for being women without men.

Julia and the protagonist have a fight regarding a glass of juice. A person dies by suicide from the roof of their apartment building. They learn from a neighbor that people always choose their roof, because it's the only one tall enough around to guarantee death. Julia accuses the narrator of being rude to the neighbor. The protagonist and Julia haven not touched since they bathed together that one day. The protagonist reflects on what is known as "bed death" in lesbian communities.

One day, the protagonist finds out Julia has packed her things, boarded a bus, and left without even a note. Leaving her apartment, the narrator sees Shah, crying, running down the stairs. She wonders who he is visiting in the building then realizes he was there to consider jumping off it. She follows him all the way down and out onto the street. She thinks Julia would have insisted on something more, but Julia is no longer there.