On a fog-laden night outside Shop-Way, Ethan Mack smokes his pipe despite his own handbook’s rules, waiting out a shift with only his employee Tanner in the back. He watches Tova shop late and leave, and her solitary drives make him anxious, a worry stoked by his police scanner’s reports.

The fog conjures Ethan’s past in Kilberry, Scotland, and the decision four decades earlier to follow Cindy, an American on holiday. He remembers New York’s grit, a cross-country van trip, a quick wedding near the Oregon border, and the moment the van died in Aberdeen, Washington—where Cindy abandoned him.

Ethan stayed, finding familiarity in Aberdeen’s gray skies and hard work. He became a longshoreman, earned a union pension, moved inland for therapy on his damaged back, and eventually filled his restlessness by buying and running Shop-Way, which funds small pleasures like records and Islay scotch.

When a drunken young couple staggers through the store and speeds off, Ethan’s fear spikes. He thinks of his sister Mariah, killed by fishermen driving home from the pub, and pictures Tova’s hatchback on the same roads. He wants to drive by her house to make sure she’s safe, but he stops himself, recalling how chasing a lass once broke him.