Rob Fossick, a 41-year-old photographer, is drinking a glass of butterscotch schnapps when he witnesses the death of his mother in a retirement home, and is then left to sort out her effects.
The moment of her collapse stands out in his memory because he thinks it was "the last time I really had any options."
During the funeral, Rob hides behind a tree smoking until nearly everyone else has gone away. But one friend of his mother's lingers, an elderly resident of the home called Freddie, and together with this stately old woman, Rob starts looking through his mother's things. Among them is a box containing a small package with a Tokyo address, intended for a "Mr. Satoshi," and yet the person in question is not, Freddie claims, a Japanese.