Content Warning: This section mentions racism, racial violence, lynchings, suicide, and drug addiction.

An unnamed narrator explains the strangeness of leap years, which are an “enchanted time […] when the veil between this world and the other was gossamer thin” (10). The narrator warns that readers can either see the story of Ricki and Ezra as a tall tale, or proof of the magic that exists in our everyday world.

Ricki Wilde, at 28 years old, is the youngest member of her family, the Wildes of Wilde Funeral Homes Inc.—a company founded in 1932. She has many hobbies, including thrifting, refurbishing furniture, collecting interesting words, and cooking cannabis candy. However, she does not excel at being a Wilde; unlike her three older sisters—Rashida, Regina, and Rae—who were each born a year apart, Ricki is the outlier, conceived 15 years after Rae. Ricki’s life has not followed the plan set out for her by her parents, and she is a constant disappointment: While she dates often, her fear of intimacy has resulted in three broken engagements, much to her family’s embarrassment.

Ricki attends the Wildes’ Sunday dinner, which doubles as a weekly business meeting led by her mother and father, Carole and Richard.