Struggling Boston writer Casey Kasem meets with Adam, her landlord and a former college peer of her brother Caleb’s, in his driveway as she walks his dog in the morning. He asks her how her novel is coming along, and she tells him that she’s a couple hundred pages in but has to work a double shift, leaving little time for writing. Casey spends some time working on her novel, then gets herself ready for work. She rides her bicycle through Boston with the college students, admiring the geese and thinking of her mother, who recently passed away. 

The restaurant Casey works at is a high-end establishment called Iris. Casey navigates the competitive social dynamics between the servers while trying to make as much money as she can during the lunch rush. In the interim between lunch and dinner shifts, Casey brings her tip earnings from lunch to her bank. She lines up at the teller to deposit the cash into her account, and the teller reminds her that it’s faster for her to deposit using the ATM. Casey is careful with her money; her student loan debt doubled while she was living abroad, and whatever little money she earns goes to student loan debt collectors.