Protagonist Sage Singer attends a grief therapy group meeting. Both of Sage’s parents are dead—her father died of a heart attack when she was nineteen, and her mother died three years later in a car accident. Sage has a large scar on her face from the accident; The scar and trauma of losing her parents have made her a self-conscious loner. She finds an emotional outlet in baking, having taken up her late father’s former hobby after his death. To avoid interacting with other people, Sage works the night shift at a local bakery called Our Daily Bread.

Sage ducks out of the meeting to use the bathroom. On the way back, she runs into a new participant, a 95-year-old German man named Josef Weber. She recognizes him as a frequent customer at Our Daily Bread who always writes in a black leather-bound journal. Josef is reluctant to open up during the meeting.

Our Daily Bread is attached to the Our Lady of Mercy shrine in Westerbrook, New Hampshire. The bakery is run by Mary, a former nun and the closest thing Sage has to a friend. Mary disapproves of Sage’s relationship with Adam, an attractive funeral home director whom she first met at her mother’s service.