Toby wakes Hannah and Solly and tells them that he is expecting a big promotion that day. He brings them both to work and drops them off in a large conference room. His phone goes off. When he visits Bartuck’s office. Bartuck informs him that someone else has been hired for the position. It was felt that Toby wasn’t willing to give the time necessary for the work; Bartuck mentions that Toby has taken many personal days in the past few weeks. Toby defends himself, but the decision is final.

In his office afterward, Joanie informs Toby that he’ll be needed to consult on a CT scan in 20 minutes. While she’s there, Toby asks her out to dinner. He reflects on what an ideal romantic partner she would make, how much his kids would love her. She turns down his invitation. He gathers Hannah and Solly from the conference room and takes them home. The next day, Karen Cooper dies.

The morning after spending the night in Toby’s apartment, the narrator gets coffee and a bagel. She spots Rachel at a table nearby. They say hello to one another. Rachel appears disheveled. She is wearing little makeup and has an odd haircut. When the narrator asks Rachel what is going on with her, Rachel explains where she’s been.

A couple of years before, Sam asked Rachel out to dinner along with his nephew who wanted to be a Broadway actor. Rachel gave professional advice to the nephew. After dinner, Sam walked Rachel to the door of her apartment and told her that there is a good-paying job at his company for a doctor. That weekend, Sam offered Toby the job, and Toby refused. Around this time, Rachel and Toby encountered marital difficulties. Toby felt Rachel was always angry, and Rachel felt her anger was justified. Toby brought up the prospect of divorce. Rachel believed they were only going through a particularly difficult time due to the age of their kids and her recently founded business. She hoped things could be worked out and didn’t want to consider divorce.

In January, Sam showed up at her work with flowers as a way of expressing thanks for helping his nephew. She cried. Sam asked her out to dinner, and she accepted. At dinner, she talked about how she feels that Toby resents her ambition and success. Sam told her that he found those qualities attractive, and that he wished his own wife, Miriam, were more ambitious. Rachel understood Sam found her attractive, and she began to see the prospect of being divorced in a favorable light. After dinner, Rachel brought Sam back to her office, where they had sex.

Sam and Rachel began to see one another at hotels on weeknights. One day, Sam told Rachel he’d like their relationship to become more permanent. Rachel considered the obstacles. Their children might have to switch schools. An idea occurred to her to open a Los Angeles branch of her business. She envisioned leaving her life in New York behind completely. She ultimately granted Toby the divorce, and Toby moved out.

After she heard from Todd Leffer that Toby was seeing other women, she called him and told him her plans to open a Los Angeles branch. That same night, she accepted an invitation from Sam to go to Kripalu for the weekend. She waited for the right time the next morning to bring Solly and Hannah over to Toby’s house to avoid being seen by him when she dropped off the children.

On the drive to Kripalu with Sam, she cried from exhaustion. Sam told her she was being a “drag” (333). When they arrived, they had sex several times, but Rachel did not feel much. She signed up for a private meditation class that involved intensive screaming. She screamed for Toby, Hannah, Solly, and herself, and came to the realization that she had never been sufficiently loved. When she tried to tell Sam about her revelation over dinner, he only expressed disappointment that she wasn’t as fun or sexually available as he had expected. After they have sex in their room again, Rachel was unable to sleep and went through Sam’s medications. She found Ambien but didn’t take any.

She approached Sam while crying the next day, which made him annoyed again. He told her that it had been a mistake to come to Kripalu together, and he packed his things. Sam left Kripalu; Rachel remained behind. She did more yoga and screaming therapy; she told Simone that she didn’t want to be contacted in any way for at least the next few days. Simone tried to tell her that Toby had been reaching out to her about their children, but Rachel threatened to fire Simone if Simone said anything more about Toby.

While still at Kripalu, Rachel developed a serious difficulty falling asleep. One night, she walked in the dark for a mile and buried her phone in the ground. After more screaming classes, she called Simone and asked for a car to be sent for her. Once home, she ordered beef lo mein instead of her usual choice of shrimp in lobster sauce, then walked to a health food store to purchase six kinds of tea to aid sleep. In a sleep-deprived delirium, Rachel went to her grandmother’s in Baltimore, and then out to Los Angeles, before returning to her apartment and once more ordering beef lo mein. Throughout the process, she remained unable to fall asleep. She went to a SoulCycle class and then to Supercuts, where she got a severe new haircut. After buying a pair of sweatpants at the Gap, and lying down in the grass at the park, she was found by her friends Cyndi and Miriam. She went home and ordered yet more beef lo mein. Ultimately, 10 days pass in which Rachel was stuck in this cycle.

One morning, she decided to go to her client Alejandra Lopez’s apartment. While there, Alejandra informed her that she had lost an important movie deal and replaced Rachel as her agent. Alejandra was now represented by Matt Klein, the man who had hit on Rachel while she worked for him, and who had failed to give Rachel an important promotion while she was pregnant. From Alejandra’s apartment, Rachel went to a rape survivor’s group in Toby’s hospital. She ranted about her woes until she was asked if she had been raped. She said that she hadn’t “technically” and then was asked to leave. She went to Toby’s apartment but can’t bring herself to enter. While grabbing a bagel afterward, she ran into the narrator.

After hearing her story, the narrator decides to walk Rachel home. The narrator sits on the edge of her bed, and Rachel finally falls asleep for the first time in a long time. Later that day, the narrator calls Toby and tells him that she’s found Rachel. When the narrator tells Toby he has “to do something for her” (354), Toby responds that he doesn’t have to do anything.

Toby visits Nahid in her apartment, and she requests that they have lunch in the open air for the first time. As they eat together, Toby notices things about Nahid that he hadn’t noticed before and doesn’t find flattering. He finds their conversation flat, and he guesses that she’s older than she’s been pretending. He starts to feel uncomfortable around her. He pretends to take a call from the hospital and leaves.

The narrator takes Rachel to a doctor, who declares that she is exhausted but essentially okay. The narrator brings Rachel back to her apartment. Simone arrives with documents for Rachel to sign. Rachel declares her intention to get back on top of work once she has caught up on sleep. Rachel asks the narrator to remain at her apartment so that she can sleep.

Toby and the narrator go to a gathering at Seth’s apartment in Williamsburg. When they arrive, Seth is well dressed and seems nervous. He proposes to Vanessa in front of his friends and family. She says yes and everyone applauds. Afterward, the narrator tells Toby that she plans on writing a book about Toby and the summer they’ve had together. Toby points out that there isn’t an ending yet and the narrator suggests that perhaps the story will end it where they’re at or perhaps with Rachel coming back home to the children. Toby presses his mouth to the narrator’s in something like a kiss. The narrator asks Toby if he’ll ever get married again. Watching Seth and Vanessa happily dancing, Toby says he hopes so.

The narrator reflects on her summer, on marriage, and on the ways in which she hasn’t treated her husband as well as he deserves. She realizes that Toby’s marriage troubles are not her own. She decides to return to her home in the New Jersey suburbs with a new resolve to be close with her family.

Toby returns to his apartment after Seth’s engagement party. Standing in his living room, Toby resolves to be a good father. He looks at his reflection in the window and looks out to the city. He hears a key in the lock and sees Rachel in the doorway.