The children are confined for the winter holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas. On Thanksgiving day, Cathy sets the table, while they wait for Corrine to return with the leftovers from the family’s lavish Thanksgiving table. Corrine is two hours late, and offers the excuse that the family’s invited guests held up proceedings. Chris eats voraciously, but although the twins are starving, they complain about the food and barely eat.

Then, both the twins catch a fever, and although they are very frail, Corrine will not take them to see a doctor. She thinks about supplementing the lack of fresh air that is making her children sickly with vitamins. Cathy rages at her mother for the neglect, and demands to know how much longer the family will be locked up. Chris explodes at Cathy to “stop picking” on their mother and to stop treating her so mistrustfully (176). Cathy, meanwhile, wonders how he can be so gullible.

For Christmas, the older children make gifts for the twins, their mother, and even their grandmother. They hope that in making their grandmother a picture they might win her over.

However, when they present grandmother with the picture they have made on Christmas day, she says nothing and refuses to accept the gift.