Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of substance use, mental illness, death, and racism.

An unnamed narrator and her mother—both widowed—get together to gossip about the Burgess family. Jim, Bob, and Susan are siblings, and the narrator hints at some trauma or event that took place involving the family. Jim was a successful, high-profile defense attorney who made national news when his client, singer Wally Packer, was acquitted. Both Bob and Susan sometimes babysat for the narrator and her sisters in Shirley Falls, Maine.

One day, the narrator shares with her mother that she is considering writing a book about the Burgesses.

Helen Burgess, wife of Jim, is packing for a trip to St. Kits with Jim’s colleague Alan and Alan’s wife, Dorothy, when her brother-in-law, Bob, calls to say that something has just happened to him. Helen suggests that Bob meet her and Jim for dinner so that he can share it. After hanging up, Helen thinks about how Bob accidentally killed his father at age four with the family car.

Bob arrives and explains to Helen that he witnessed another fight between the married couple in the apartment below him. This time, however, the wife accused the husband of hitting her—falsely, according to Bob—and the husband was arrested.