On the last Friday in June, Alice drives Nan north from Toronto toward Barry’s Bay, making frequent stops for Nan’s post–hip surgery recovery, including ice cream in Bancroft. Nan is quiet and reflective as cottage country comes into view, noting how little has changed since her last visit a decade earlier.

They reach Bare Rock Lane and the Kalinski cottage, a classic 1920s log place overlooking Kamaniskeg Lake. Nan elects to stay in the car while Alice searches for the key. Unable to find the outhouse where caretaker Charlie Florek said the key would be hidden, Alice calls him. Charlie teases her but guides her to a camouflaged shed up an overgrown slope, warns about footwear, and signs off with a suggestive “see you soon.”

Determined to manage on her own, Alice climbs the hill through brambles, opens the dark outhouse, and, after spotting the key area, is startled by a mother raccoon and babies. She tumbles out, gets scratched and scraped, and limps back, annoyed at Charlie.

Inside the cottage, Alice takes in the familiar honey-brown wood, mismatched furniture, Joyce’s romance bookshelf, and the glass wall over the lake. The view pulls her back to being seventeen with a camera, remembering Luca and Lavinia on the dock and a yellow speedboat, before she refocuses on the present.

Alice helps Nan inside despite Nan’s insistence on independence and plans to make the living room safer by removing a large rug. As Nan goes to make her afternoon tea, Alice starts shifting furniture in the heat to roll up the rug. Nan then calls her into the kitchen, holding a torn, handwritten page found on the fridge.

Alice reads the note, which shocks her and upends her expectations of a quiet, restorative summer of walks, swims, and work. The chapter closes with Alice realizing she had not counted on Charlie Florek being an intrusion or complication in their plans.