A college aged aspiring author witnesses a horrible car accident. An elementary school girl was hit by a car as she walked home with her classmate. The other child was traumatised by the event, but that was to be expected given the circumstances. But her troubles only begin there. When the author is summoned to the child's home he discovers that she has many more horrors at home to overcome. The child lives alone in a large home. No one cares for her. She hoards food from school to feed herself. She spends her time waiting for her parents to return, but there are no signs of them anywhere.
The improbable imprisonment that transformed “I” into a novelist continues into a third, fourth, and fifth day. “U” obsesses over formalities, as “I” quietly coaxes her into taking care of herself. As this bizarre farce of a kidnapping stretches towards the inevitable breaking point, “I” starts to discover the truth about “U”, a truth he should never have learned …