For the residents of Beatrice, the grain elevator reminds each person of the parts of them that exist in the past, still defining who they are today. For Colleen, an ill-fated teenage romance led her from Thunder Bay to Beatrice some seventeen years ago. Dale, Jr., tries to live up to his father's example after he inherits the family farm. Dolores struggles to keep her life's losses and disappointments at bay. Perry laments his son, lost to the city, and his wife, whose secret life Perry did not discover until long after her death.