“And then there was the day when Addie Moore made a call on Louis Waters.”

This is the first line of the novel; it sets the reader up for the conversational narrative style and suggests that this novel is just one part of the larger story of the characters’ lives since it begins with the words “and then.” Since Kent Haruf sets many of his works in the fictional town of Holt, this opening line weaves these new characters into the existing fabric of Holt.

“I made up my mind I’m not going to pay attention to what people think. I’ve done that too long—all my life. I’m not going to live that way anymore.”

Addie explains to Louis how her attitude to other people’s opinions has changed with time: She has lived much of her life doing things according to what seems proper to others, but now she’s decided to live according to her own needs. As the story opens, those needs include having a companion to talk to at night to fight off The Pain of Loneliness.

“How strange this is. How new it is to be here. How uncertain I feel, and sort of nervous. I don’t know what I’m thinking. A mess of things.”

This is Louis’s response when Addie asks how he feels on the first night he sleeps over at her house. His reaction sounds like that of a young person on the brink of a romantic relationship rather than that of a widower in his seventies, signifying that Late-Life Love is accompanied by the same feelings of excitement and uncertainty as younger romantic relationships.