Ted remembered being fourteen at a funeral where the artist whispered the Mary Oliver line “what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life,” and Ted discovered grief’s physicality. In the present, twenty-five years later, Ted sat on a train with the artist’s ashes, the valuable painting in a larger box on the floor, and Louisa beside him, berating himself for accepting such responsibility.

A recent memory unfolded of Ted and the artist having breakfast on the balcony of the artist’s apartment as spring advanced and illness progressed. They discussed the auction of the artist’s first painting; the artist insisted on buying it back even at ruinous cost, joking that artists should die poor. Ted protested and confessed he feared life without the artist, while the artist pressed Ted to decide what he would do with his “one wild and precious life” and urged Ted to live after he died.

Scenes from their final months together showed Ted nursing the artist through coughing and vomiting, their shared laughter, pranks like an indoor water-balloon mishap, and the artist’s wish that Ted be happy after his death. The artist occasionally mistook Ted for Joar upon waking, revealing lingering longing and history. The artist kept his illness private, saying dying is the last private thing, and savored ordinary joys with Ted.

The narrative then recounted the origin and legacy of the pier painting from the boys’ fifteenth summer and the divergent paths after autumn funerals. The artist was discovered, admitted to a prestigious school, and moved away, phoning Ted through panic and grief. He traveled the world at Ted’s urging, found his voice, and sent back work that astonished teachers and patrons, launching sudden fame that soon overwhelmed him.

As fame intensified, the artist was increasingly observed rather than allowed to observe, developed dependence on pills, and lived in anxious isolation, his unfinished works becoming most coveted. He spiraled until nearly drowning while drunk at thirty-seven, prompting Ted—who hated travel and big cities—to move in. With Ted, the artist regained balance for a time; they cooked, danced, and read poetry until illness struck and Ted stayed to care for him.

Near the end, Ted read poems by Bodil Malmsten, Joan Didion, and Maya Angelou at the bedside, and woke to find the artist holding his fingers. Despite a doctor’s warning not to travel before Easter, Ted helped the artist liquidate his belongings, traveled to the auction, bought back the painting, and behind the church the artist met Louisa.

Returning to the present, Ted sat on the train with the ashes, the painting, and Louisa, concluding again that this journey was a spectacularly bad idea, worse even than Joar’s infamous “socks in the toaster” mishap.