Jo, the novel’s protagonist, is a graduate student studying bird ecology who’s living in a rented cottage in the middle of the forest to complete research for her PhD. She spends all day studying the nesting habits of indigo buntings. Jo works long hours to make up for the two years she missed while undergoing cancer treatment. She’s still recovering from the treatment and trying to get her life back on track—and grieving the loss of her mother, who died from the same cancer that Jo battled. Both her parents were scientists, so she has a “double dose of analytical genes” (3). Jo’s upbringing fostered a love of the natural world in her, leading to her choice of work as a field biologist.

Many of Jo’s actions and emotions are influenced by her grief and ongoing recovery. She had her breasts and ovaries removed, so her view of herself has warped. Because of her trauma, she feels she has two parts: “the old Jo [and] the new almost Jo” (32). She worries about how men view her now that she’s “a woman who wasn’t exactly a woman anymore” (64). In addition to her confidence issues, Jo’s new lease on life has changed the way she loves.