The story is set in Pasadena, California, about 1984. Cassie Dedrick lives with her widowed mother in a small house close to the downtown area. Her father Chad was killed in an automobile accident when Cassie was three years old. Her mother was pregnant with a little boy at the time but miscarried as a result of the accident. Mrs. Dedrick informs Cassie she is pregnant again. Several months earlier she had answered an advertisement in the Los Angeles Times for a surrogate mother and was artificially inseminated. Although the initial attempt was unsuccessful, she continued her visits to the doctor until impregnation occurred.

The baby she is carrying is a boy, and Mrs. Dedrick is very happy about the situation. Cassie, however, is too absorbed in the effects her mother's pregnancy will have on her own life to share her mother's pleasure. She is particularly concerned with the...