Harvey is wandering across across America when a friend asks him to buy his printing business and Harvey suddenly becomes a businessman in Guttenberg, Iowa.
His girlfriend, Kristen, insists they marry but Harvey is hesitant. Until Kristen becomes pregnant with Christine. Never in love, the stress of running a business and raising a daughter drives Kristen and Harvey apart but what really severs them is Christine's death in a car accident.
Rie wants adventure. She wants to drink and do drugs. She finds them all on a cross-country trip but doesn't expect to run into a romantic accountant who asks her to marry him. She doesn't expect to meet Paolo, a fat artist in Chicago. She doesn't expect to marry, and she never expects Paolo to offer her a job.
She must learn the basics of bookbinding, papermaking, typography, and printing for Paolo so that she can buy artist books for him.