On Valentine’s Day, three months earlier, Sandy’s husband loses his job. Ever since, he lives and sleeps on the couch, collecting unemployment and going to the occasional unsuccessful job interview. Although Sandy loves him, his inaction repulses her, and she does not understand why an otherwise healthy man is unable to move. He watches television, reads magazines and newspapers, and occasionally thumbs through a book called Mysteries of the Past. One day, Sandy picks up the book and reads about a man who was frozen and preserved in fairly good condition for two thousand years in the Netherlands. Every day when Sandy comes home from her job, her husband—always dressed for work—has coffee waiting. Sandy is dismayed when a friend at work tells her about her uncle, who took to his bed at the age of 40 and stayed there for 23 years. Embarrassed by her husband, she imagines what it would be like if he never moves from the couch.

One afternoon, Sandy returns from work and sees her husband laying on the couch with his eyes closed, either sleeping or pretending to sleep. She goes into the kitchen to discover that the refrigerator stopped working and all of their frozen food is melting.