Greta begins the novel by describing a tall woman from Switzerland, whom she calls “Big Swiss,” whose “beauty was like Switzerland itself—stunning, but sterile” (1). Greta hasn’t met Big Swiss in person but has heard her voice. Greta’s job is to listen to tapes of clients’ sessions with a sex and relationship therapist named Om, and to transcribe these sessions so that Om can write a book.

Greta used to work at a pharmacy. A man pulled a gun on her for drugs at the pharmacy, then died of an overdose two days later. Just after that, the pharmacist she worked with, Hopper, died by suicide. Greta’s fiancé Stacy was concerned that Greta would be upset by Hopper’s death because her own mother had died by suicide. Greta agreed to go to therapy at Stacy’s behest, where she was diagnosed with emotional detachment disorder. Greta was perturbed by this diagnosis; she quit therapy, broke up with her fiancé, moved to Hudson, and change careers after the diagnosis. Her new job transcribing therapy sessions keeps her secluded indoors, which she prefers. Greta is attracted to Big Swiss’s voice, and she suspects that Om finds Big Swiss beautiful because he had not turned the recorder on until well into their first conversation.