In the morning after the Academy Awards, Margaret Ives prepares nervously to meet Cosmo Sinclair, only to find him chatting with Laura Ives in the breakfast room. Laura’s gentle endorsement—signaled by a touch on Margaret’s elbow—reassures Margaret. Overwhelmed by Cosmo’s presence, Margaret suggests a walk, and the pair roam the estate’s groves, gardens, and lake until sunset, when Cosmo asks her to dinner; Margaret delays to first speak with Laura.

Margaret finds Laura writing a letter and learns Laura has been corresponding and occasionally speaking on the phone with Dr. David Ryan Atwood. Laura already knows about the Governors Ball encounter via David and urges Margaret to live her life rather than hover as a caretaker, promising she will not be lost without Margaret, only that there will be “a little more…space.” Buoyed by Laura’s blessing, Margaret agrees to meet Cosmo the next night.

Cosmo arrives in a disguised car and takes Margaret to his rented house, then to a secluded beach for a picnic. They swim, make love, and speak earnestly about their connection; Cosmo impulsively proposes. Margaret declines on the grounds that they do not yet know each other, but the intimacy deepens. Over the following two and a half weeks in Los Angeles, they spend every day together, and by the end both understand they intend to marry.

With paparazzi tailing them, Margaret and Cosmo plan a three-day “faux breakup” to deflect attention and arrange a courthouse wedding known only to Cosmo’s guard and manager, and to Laura. Margaret and Laura share a small, sisterly celebration and camp in their childhood playroom. On the wedding day, Cosmo drives them himself; paparazzi swarm the courthouse, but the ceremony is quick, and a starstruck bride even gifts her bouquet to Margaret. The newlyweds slip out a back door to a waiting car and plane, while Laura declines to accompany them.

Margaret and Cosmo spend two weeks in Tennessee, including one hometown show, then travel to Italy. International press pursue them incessantly, dubbing him “the Rich Man’s Elvis” and the couple “the Closest Thing Americans Have to Royalty.” Rumors and critical articles, including one comparing Margaret to Cosmo’s past companions, leave Cosmo enraged and ashamed at his inability to protect her. Margaret counsels acceptance and asks only for his love, which he gives freely throughout their first month.

Returning to Los Angeles a month later, they enter the House of Ives to learn from butler Briggs that Laura is absent. After Margaret presses for answers, Briggs reveals Laura has gone to Dr. David Atwood’s New Mexico center. Margaret rushes for the library phone, but Briggs explains there are no phones at the facility and hands over Laura’s letter.

In the letter, Laura claims great progress through correspondence with David, says she needs space from the family to discover her true self beyond the Ives shadow, and requests no contact until she completes the program, promising to return as her best self. Reading it with Cosmo beside her, Margaret feels the letter explains nothing and is left anxious and unsettled.