Carrie Bell

Carrie Bell is twenty-three and living in her hometown of Madison, Wisconsin. She is engaged to her high school sweetheart Mike, but she feels the relationship has run its course. She is considering ending the relationship when Mike has an accident that leaves him a quadriplegic.

To the people around her, including her best friend Jamie, Carrie’s behavior after the accident is viewed as strange and inappropriate. Unable to cope with what has happened to Mike, and by extension of the accident to herself, she flees Madison for New York City without telling anyone.

She wants to explore her life away from Madison and a life she felt stagnated. She struggles with the relationships with Mike and Kilroy, comparing both men to the other, depending on whom she is with at the time.

Guilt and a sense of loyalty lead her back to Madison and to...