Frankie awoke from intense Vietnam nightmares, disoriented on her bedroom floor, and struggled to sleep. Late that night she wandered the house, chafing at the relics of her old life and the silence around her service. She wrote to Barb Johnson about hostile protesters at the airport and her parents’ indifference, then tried to rest.

In the morning, her mother proposed a return to “real life” with a salon visit and lunch at the club, brushing aside Frankie’s trauma and dodging questions about Connor McGrath. At the salon, the stylist recoiled when Frankie mentioned Vietnam. At the country club, a loud crash triggered Frankie to dive to the floor; when she explained she had just returned from Vietnam, Dr. Brenner insisted there were no women in Vietnam and revealed her parents had told people she was studying abroad in Florence. Frankie confronted her mother over the lie and fled.

Back home, Frankie wrote a raw letter to Rye Walsh about her parents’ shame and her fury. That evening she tried to tell her parents about the war, but Connor shut down the conversation and Bette scolded her language. Frankie accused them of valuing a son’s service over a daughter’s and stormed out to the beach, screaming into the night.

After nightmares returned, Frankie called Barb at dawn, admitting she was not okay. Barb encouraged her to “soldier on” and suggested a welcome-home party for Rye. Energized, Frankie drove to Compton to ask Rye’s father about planning it.

At the shuttered Stanley and Mo’s Auto Repair, Stan Walsh derided the idea of women in Vietnam and, without ceremony, handed Frankie a telegram stating that Lieutenant Commander Joseph Ryerson Walsh had been killed in action and his remains were unrecoverable. Devastated, Frankie staggered back to her car and drove home in a fog.

At home, Frankie collapsed on her bed and broke down. When Bette came to check on her, Frankie confessed she had fallen in love in Vietnam and that Rye had been shot down. Bette silently held her as Frankie sobbed; when Connor appeared and learned a “friend” had been shot down, he left without comment, closing the door.

Over the next two days, Frankie was besieged by nightmares of helicopters being shot down and Rye’s death. Her mother offered conventional counsel about enduring and going on, which Frankie received numbly, unable to imagine a life without Rye.