Ruth arrives unexpectedly at the family's Manhattan brownstone and discovers signs that someone is living there. Recognizing Jenny's yellow sweatpants, she realizes her daughter has been secretly squatting while pretending to live in Connecticut. While waiting, Ruth reflects on Phyllis's old Mutchnick slumlord stories and her own fraught history with Jenny, contemplating whether to sell the estate to save the family financially.

Ruth's memory traces back through her marriage: how she abandoned her boyfriend Dale Scher for the wealthier, traumatized Carl after his father's death; how she grew to hate Middle Rock; and how, after the kidnapping, she discovered she was pregnant with Jenny and tried desperately to miscarry, certain the baby was tainted by the trauma. She recalls Phyllis insisting they pretend nothing had happened, Carl's catastrophic reaction to early antidepressants (including publicly reciting the unrecovered ransom amount at a bat mitzvah), and a misogynistic psychologist, Dr. Light, who told her Carl would never recover and she must "make it simple" by staying calm.

Jenny finally arrives, having just come from her confrontation about Arthur. Mother and daughter argue bitterly: Jenny accuses Ruth of failing her and hints at suspicions about Ruth's relationship with Arthur; Ruth calls Jenny a spoiled, unrecognizable disappointment. Jenny's phone rings with urgent news and she retreats to take the call. Ruth leaves, recognizing in retrospect that her children are like the veal calves from Jenny's old school project—fattened but unable to walk into adulthood, and that she authored their incompetence.

Ruth recalls her decades-long emotional partnership with Arthur, including their last lunch before Phyllis's death and the letter he left during shiva announcing he was disappearing without contact. Resolved that the answer must come from her, Ruth devises a scheme: she visits her unstable sister-in-law Marjorie in Forest Hills and manipulates her, falsely claiming the estate was never willed to Carl alone and urging Marjorie to demand her half and force a sale. Marjorie behaves strangely, treating Ruth as if she were a ghost or apparition, but seems to absorb the plan.

That night, Ruth is awakened by a landline call from Ike Besser, who tells her there has been a fire at the factory and she must come immediately.