The protagonist emphasizes the importance of family privacy within their Ghanaian culture, mentioning how intimate details about their family are to be kept within the household.
Despite social norms suggesting best friends share everything, the protagonist's need for privacy about family matters leads to a sense of inauthenticity in their friendships.
The narrator has a routine of waking up before their alarm, silently preparing food in the morning for their father's meals, considering the state and schedule for cleaning and sorting the kitchen.
The protagonist prepares meals for their father, who has Parkinson’s disease, and interacts with his carer, Dawoud, who is from Yemen.
Details about the protagonist's morning routine, including watching a prayer channel, setting reminders for their father's appointments, and assessing council tax reductions are shared.
The protagonist reminiscences about a significant event from the past when their father got lost, signaling the onset of his Parkinson's disease, and subsequently discusses the genetics and rarity of hereditary Parkinson's.
Mentioned is the protagonist's brother, James, who lives away from home, and their mother's travel pattern between Ghana and the UK due to family business and personal reasons.
The family dynamics are explored, touching on the absence of the protagonist's brother and mother, and how the protagonist learned to be self-dependent and manage household responsibilities.
The protagonist's morning interaction with their father, who has Parkinson's, is described, highlighting the changes in his condition and the nuances of his routine and memory.
The story conveys the protagonist's struggle to balance their emotional connection with their father and the need to manage his care while maintaining a personal life and job.
In a comparison between past friendships based on convenience and the present, the narrative focuses on the lasting friendship with Nia, the protagonist's best friend studying in Utah.
A morning commute ritual is detailed, which includes getting to work and observing other commuters, contemplating their job satisfaction, and looking up lists of happy and unhappy careers on Google.
There is a conversation between the protagonist and their mother, who requests money, and it transitions into the protagonist expressing feelings of sadness and anxiety, which the mother dismisses, attributing it to a lack of faith and social activity.
The mother's reaction to the protagonist's suggestion of seeking medical help for their emotional state is negative, with the mother advocating for reliance on faith over medical intervention.
The chapter concludes with the protagonist self-reflecting, questioning their constant state of sadness, contemplating if there's something fundamentally wrong with themselves, and expressing frustration over their mental state.