At the McGrath family’s walled estate on Coronado Island, a formal party is held to celebrate Finley McGrath’s departure for service. The scene is elegant and controlled, reflecting the values of Bette and Mr. McGrath, who prize propriety, status, and the family’s tradition of military pride. Twenty-year-old Frankie circulates anxiously, waiting for Finley, feeling the pressure to appear composed.

Finley arrives late and drunk with his best friend, Rye Walsh, and a group of friends. Bette McGrath greets them with polished restraint. Mr. McGrath halts the music to toast Finley, leaning into his self-made, military-proud persona despite his own 4-F history, and the crowd applauds the beloved but unruly golden boy. Feeling out of place, Frankie retreats into her father’s office, where a wall of family military memorabilia underscores the family’s male-centric narrative of heroism.

Rye enters the office to smoke and finds Frankie there. They share a quiet moment, and Rye challenges the wall’s absence of women by saying that women can be heroes. The intensity of his conviction and gaze jolts Frankie, planting a new idea about what women could do, in stark contrast to the narrow expectations set by her upbringing and schooling.

As the party winds down, Frankie wanders to Coronado Beach, reflecting on Rye’s words and the limits imposed on women—teacher, nurse, secretary—and on her mother’s belief that nursing is merely a prelude to marriage. She wonders how a woman might claim a larger life without invitation or precedent.

On the beach, Frankie sees Rye and others horsing around at the water’s edge. Finley joins her and they reminisce about their shared childhood by the sea. When Frankie asks if he should go to Vietnam, Finley deflects with JFK’s famous exhortation and insists his naval assignment will be safe, echoing the era’s public narrative about stopping communism and the sanitized images on the nightly news.

As Finley puts an arm around Frankie and calls her “Peanut,” his voice catches, revealing his own fear. Frankie can no longer deny the risk he faces. The chapter closes with her acute realization that her brother is going to war, and that nothing about it feels safe.