The tension between Eleanor and her family is central to the novel. She admits that she tends to let her emotions and behaviors get in the way of her relationships with her loved ones, particularly her husband, Joe, and sister, Ivy. At the beginning of the novel, she undertakes a set of resolutions with the view of improving herself and her relationships, and her efforts to keep these resolutions drive the novel’s action. Throughout the narrative, she realizes that she must find a way to balance her own needs with those of her loved ones.

Eleanor’s relationship with Joe is already strained when the story begins, and when Joe disappears, Eleanor blames herself for pushing him away. Though she tries to see the bright side of him leaving, she realizes that she loves and needs him. Joe is Eleanor’s foil and complement, and when she struggles with doubt and confusion, she relies on his rationality and certainty. Eleanor’s conflict with Joe reaches its peak after she finds him and learns the reason for his disappearance: He has become a born-again Christian and didn’t know how to tell her. She doesn’t recognize the man she married in this person who embraces mystery and ambiguity, and she accuses him of no longer being “the man [she] bought” (194).