Lila keeps a last family photo by her bed, torn between nostalgic grief for the family life she imagined and anger at Dan, occasionally fantasizing about covering his face in the picture. Sleepless and wistful, she mourns the vanished future of holidays, graduations, and weddings that will never be.

While unblocking the children’s bathroom, Lila takes a call from her agent, Anoushka, who pushes for pages of a promised book about living happily single. Lila, overwhelmed and evasive, promises a draft soon despite not having written it. Bill interrupts to relay neighbor complaints about their barking dog, Truant, and a leak seeping through the kitchen ceiling.

An emergency plumber discovers a leak in the soil pipe, drains the system, declares the entire bathroom plumbing needs replacing, and leaves Lila with a hefty bill. Bill offers quiet support and to help, while Lila insists she’s fine. The narrative reflects on Bill moving in after Francesca’s death, his subdued grief, and Lila’s own shock from Dan’s departure and affair, compounded by widowhood in the family; Bill’s presence provides a stabilizing anchor for Lila and the girls.

Lila walks to school for pickup, dreading the judgmental atmosphere at the gates, recalling earlier public humiliation after her marriage collapsed just as her book about fixing marriages came out. Without her mother to buffer social encounters, she isolates herself on the playground’s edge and vows—again—to write the next day.

From across the playground, Lila sees Philippa congratulating Marja, who is not drinking and instinctively covers her midsection. Realizing Marja is pregnant, Lila reels, feigning a phone call to avoid breaking down under the other mothers’ stares. Violet arrives with Mrs. Tugendhat, who cheerfully informs Lila that Violet is the narrator in the upcoming multi-faith, non-nativity end-of-year production.

In a daze, Lila is asked to handle wardrobe for the school’s Peter Pan adaptation, and she agrees despite panic and rising tinnitus-like humming in her head. Spotting Marja leaving via their usual route, Lila diverts Violet down a different street to avoid her. Violet calls out Lila’s odd behavior and recounts Bill’s healthier snack substitution, then distracts her mother with a grotesque playground anecdote about a classmate’s worms. The chapter closes with Lila shakily praising Violet’s blunt wisdom, clinging to her daughter’s clarity in the midst of personal upheaval.