The novel opens in Los Angeles, California, where the 45-year-old narrator lives with her husband, Harris, and their child, Sam. One day, she receives a note from her neighbor Brian about someone taking photos of her house using a telephoto lens. He offers to use his FBI connections to find the guy. The narrator tells Harris about the issue, but he doesn’t react, and the narrator feels like crying. She considers how her marriage compares to her friends’ relationships.

The narrator takes Brian’s note to her desk in her garage studio and calls him. He tells her about the photographer’s car and offers to give her the contact information for a friend who can track him. The conversation lapses into silence, which again makes the narrator want to cry.

On Saturday, Brian texts her the photographer’s car information and the number of his retired cop friend Tim Yoon. The narrator doesn’t call Tim but imagines their conversation.

The narrator makes plans to take a trip to New York. A whiskey company recently paid her $20,000 for a sentence she wrote years ago, which they’re licensing for their ad campaign. She’ll use the money to get away, spend time writing, and visit friends in the city.