For her entire life, twenty-seven year old Marianne Johnson has been on the move, the decisions which she's made as an adult which have been total failures, such as her second most recent marriage to Curtis Johnson, which brought her to Normal, Wyoming. However, she has an optimistic view of life, always believing that each decision she makes will be the right one. She is a linear thinker and despite being bright in this regard, she has no life or job skills, never having had a paying job besides a short stint in the army where she met Curtis. Conversely, thirty-eight year old Darly Peters wears her failures openly on her sleeve, she bulldozing her way through life. Currently a cocktail waitress in Normal, waitressing which dominates her resumé, Darly receives news that her ex-husband, who she left eighteen years ago, has died and has deeded the house which they were building at the time in remote Palmer Valley, Alaska to her.