After overhearing Miles's tense phone call, Daphne learns that his impulsive twenty-three-year-old sister Julia has shown up unannounced at the Traverse City airport, claiming she wants to help take his mind off his breakup. Miles offers to put her in a hotel, but Daphne insists Julia stay with them and agrees to pretend to like Miles's 'mourning beard' to back him up against his sister's teasing.

The conversation shifts to the unspoken tension from their earlier hookup. Both start to speak at once, and Miles ultimately concludes that pursuing anything would be a bad idea since they're both fresh from breakups, share an apartment, and could ruin their friendship. Although Daphne wants to argue otherwise, she agrees they should remain friends. Miles leaves, still partly unzipped, to pick up Julia.

While alone, Daphne reflects on her childhood—her mother's once-warm hosting, the increasingly impersonal moves across states after her parents' divorce, and her loss of friendships—as well as meeting her best friend Sadie in a college Austen class, where Daphne identified as Charlotte Lucas. Drawing on muscle memory of being a host, she cleans the apartment, lights candles, prepares fresh sheets and towels, and shops for groceries, including four new toothbrushes per Miles's warning.

Miles returns with Julia, a tall, brash, charismatic woman who immediately mocks Miles's beard. Daphne loyally defends it, though Julia instantly senses the conspiracy. Julia reveals that Petra texted her claiming Miles and Daphne are sleeping together, prompting Daphne to admit she lied to Peter about being with Miles. Julia finds the story hilarious. She proposes drinking and pizza, but mentions of pizza stir charged memories of the previous night between Miles and Daphne, so Daphne quickly suggests nachos instead.