Jimmy and Gretchen meet at the wedding of Vernon and Becca Barbara. Becca rejected Jimmy's marriage proposal two years earlier, and he is convinced she only invited him to throw her marriage to Vernon in his face, but he showed up anyway, determined to ruin her day as payback. Gretchen came as the guest of Becca's sister Lindsay, who is Gretchen's best friend and the enabler of her sex-drugs-and-rock'n'roll lifestyle. Gretchen is the publicist for a rap trio and lives in a chaotic apartment, while Jimmy, a writer, can support himself in upscale Silver Lake and drive a BMW despite having published only one novel, written during his post-breakup depression, that has sold little and been remaindered at the local bookstore. He supports himself by writing for glossy magazines, in addition to the tiny royalty checks that occasionally arrive in his mailbox.