Peter, a thirty-two-year-old barrister, walks through Dublin roughly two weeks after his father's funeral, reflecting on his younger brother Ivan—a socially awkward chess prodigy of twenty-two—and the funeral where Ivan looked painfully out of place in a cheap ill-fitting suit. Peter arrives at the basement flat of Naomi, a young woman (around Ivan's age) with whom he has an ongoing sexual and quietly financial relationship of about eight months. They lie together on her mattress; he tells her about his father's death, which she hadn't known about. Naomi reveals that while he was away and not replying to texts, she needed money for college books and sold old intimate photos online to get it. Peter feels ashamed but says little. They smoke together and are intimate before he leaves.

Peter then walks across Dublin to meet Sylvia, his ex-girlfriend, also thirty-two, a university lecturer who suffers chronic pain from a past car accident. He reflects on how different his two relationships are: Naomi is young, careless, and sensual; Sylvia is composed, perceptive, and emotionally profound. He recalls the night of the funeral when Sylvia stayed with him at his childhood home, sleeping beside him chastely after he begged her not to leave him alone with Ivan. He also reflects on his difficult, distant relationship with his late father, his cold mother Christine, and Ivan's social isolation.

At an Italian restaurant in Temple Bar, Peter and Sylvia eat dinner and discuss practical matters, including the care of their father's dog and Naomi's precarious illegal tenancy. Afterwards, walking through the wet streets, Peter becomes emotional about his father's death, admitting he never really knew him. Sylvia offers quiet comfort, telling Peter his father loved him. Peter reflects on how his father used to do small domestic acts of care—warming milk, drying school uniforms—that constituted a form of love beyond words.

They discuss Ivan, and Sylvia reveals that at breakfast the morning after the funeral, Ivan told her about a chess exhibition he's doing in Leitrim. Sylvia gently urges Peter to reach out to his lonely, grieving brother. As they approach Sylvia's apartment, Peter, exhausted and emotionally overwhelmed, asks if he can sleep on her couch. She agrees. He suppresses the urge to tell her he is still in love with her, recognizing the impossibility of their physical relationship due to her chronic pain. At the door, Sylvia suggests he text Ivan. Peter promises he will.