Cody has always resented his girlfriends’ interest in Ezra, who seems “honestly unaware” (114) of this interest. Now a successful 30-year-old businessman, he has an apartment in New York and a 40-acre farm in Baltimore County. Jenny writes to Cody ahead of her divorce, saying that she will soon be “free to marry Sam Wiley” (116), whom Cody does not hold in high regard. Jenny says, however, that Ezra might marry before her; he has been dating a mysterious woman named Ruth. Cody struggles to imagine Ezra getting married. Ezra invites the family to a dinner at the renamed Homesick Restaurant. Cody assumes Ezra is running the business into the ground. Jenny and Pearl arrive late, bickering after a day spent dress shopping. As the argument threatens to cancel the dinner, Pearl leaves and then Ezra introduces Ruth, “a weasel-faced little redhead” (120) who works in the restaurant kitchen. Cody catches up to his mother, who launches into an impassioned tirade; she is cynical about the prospective marriage.

Cody cannot stop thinking about Ruth so arranges a visit home. When he watches her cook, this obsession intensifies. After they leave, Ezra kisses Ruth goodnight, and Cody labels it “a bumbling, inadequate kiss” (125), feeling satisfied.