John Skillpa, a quiet bank clerk living alone in tiny Peacock, Nebraska, prefers to live an invisible life in order to hide his secret: He has Dissociative Identity Disorder, the implied result of childhood psychological trauma inflicted by his child abuse mother. His alter ego is a woman, Emma, who each morning does his chores and cooks him breakfast before he starts the day. One day while he is using the outside yard clothesline as Emma, a freight train caboose derails and crashes into John's backyard.