The book opens with a first-person narrator who expresses frustration with his inability to communicate. The narrator is a dog named Enzo. Enzo is feeling his age, and looks forward to his looming death and reincarnation as a human. Enzo’s master, Denny, is an auto mechanic and race car driver. Enzo respects Denny for having the human qualities that he lacks: the ability to communicate and the capacity to make things happen. He feels like a liability in Denny’s otherwise perfect existence.

Denny comes home to find that Enzo had an accident on the kitchen floor and gives him a bath. Together they watch tapes of old car races. Denny calls his co-worker, Mike, and asks for coverage on the next day’s shift so he can take Enzo to the vet.

Enzo understands that it might be a one-way trip, but indicates that he’s ready to go. 

Enzo recalls his days as a puppy on the farm in Spangle and the day he met Denny. Enzo’s mother was indifferent to him, but his possible-father was a ragged, fighting terrier. Though Enzo doesn’t dwell on his heritage, he likes the idea of coming from terrier stock.