Pack Up the Moon opens with a letter from Lauren Carlisle, one of the protagonists, to her deceased father, Dave Carlisle. Lauren explains to her father that she knows her death is near and that her husband will soon be a widower, but she remains rooted in joy and gratitude for the life she has lived. Lauren lives in the moment, drawing inspiration from Red in The Shawshank Redemption: “[G]et busy living or get busy dying. I’m going with the first one,” she writes (1). Lauren alludes to her life’s final project, which will allow Joshua Park, her husband, to keep her with him after she’s gone.

Joshua Park, a medical device engineer, returns home to Providence, Rhode Island, from a business trip to Boston just in time to retrieve flowers for his wife on their anniversary and hide presents around their apartment. At the end of a hallway strewn with pink rose petals, his wife awaits him in their bedroom. After dismissing the thought that she went out in the cold weather and checking that she isn’t too tired, Josh kisses Lauren. He detects chocolate in her mouth, and Lauren admits she found the salted caramels Josh had hidden.