A young librarian with two dead parents moves across the country and meets an idealistic but shallow man. When their relationship falls apart, he urges her to give more of herself to the community, ignorant of the ways in which she's had to give so much away already.

Susan's slow poisoning of her abusive husband starts to feel more immoral to her brother as he befriends the broken man. When is the murder of an abusive husband not okay? As Susan slowing poisons Frank to death, her brother comes to understand how the broken man came to be. Susan's slow poisoning of her abusive husband starts to feel more immoral to her brother as he learns about the man's tragic character.