Blythe Connor sits outside her estranged husband’s house on Christmas Eve, spying on his family. The husband, Fox Connor, lives with his new partner, their toddler son, and the young teenage daughter he and Blythe had together, Violet. Blythe thinks about how much the toddler resembles someone named Sam.

As Violet stares at Blythe through the living room window, Blythe gathers a stack of papers. Referring to Fox in the second person, Blythe says to herself, “I’ve come here to give this to you. This is my side of the story” (4).

Going forward, most chapters are written as letters from Blythe that address Fox in the second person. Here, Blythe recounts how she and Fox met in college and quickly fell in love. As their relationship progresses and they move in together in an unnamed North American city, Blythe reveals snippets of her troubled family history. Her mother, Cecilia, left the family when Blythe was 11 years old, and her current whereabouts are unknown. Blythe is careful not to reveal too much, as she fears doing so will scare Fox off: “We all expect to have, and to marry, and to be, good mothers” (7).