Jack visits Sally’s apartment on Telegraph Hill and immediately falls in love with her. She is direct and mocking, but after a brief, tense conversation, they have an intense sexual encounter. Afterward, Sally is frank and analytical, critiquing their performance and speaking openly about her own expansive sexual desires. She suggests they fly to Las Vegas for a few days. Jack is initially hesitant, citing his parole conditions and lack of money, but Sally dismisses his concerns and offers to pay for everything. The next morning, Jack reflects that his years in prison ultimately led him to meeting Sally. Although he initially refuses Sally’s proposal because of his parole conditions and lack of money, he later accompanies her to Las Vegas. During the trip, Jack calls his parole officer, obtains permission to marry Sally, but is warned that he has already committed several parole violations. The parole officer also arranges a promising carpet-layer job for Jack, which Jack agrees to take when they return.

In Las Vegas, Sally and Jack argue over whether he should call his parole officer. When Jack insists on calling and reaches for the phone, Sally walks out; he does not see her again for two days. While he waits, Jack roams the casino, feeling contempt for the other gamblers. He tries to explain to Sally that all house games have losing odds, but she dismisses him until she loses $300 at craps. As they spend more time together, Jack realizes how deeply he loves and needs Sally, reflecting that Billy Lancing’s love and sacrifice helped him understand the depth of his own love for Sally. Later, after Sally returns, they argue and then reconcile passionately on the floor of their room, deciding to get married. They marry before returning to San Francisco. On the flight home, Sally reveals that her wealth came from alimony and that remarrying has left her nearly broke. Although Jack privately admits that his dream of becoming wealthy has disappeared and feels bitterly disappointed, he is relieved that the carpet-layer job arranged by his parole officer is still waiting for him.

The narrative recounts Sally’s past as a scholarship student who met and married a talented but unambitious actor. She supported and guided his career until he became a successful Hollywood star, but she left him because she could not accept the way his talent was being used. After returning to San Francisco, she became a minor celebrity as his ex-wife while searching for a more meaningful life, a search that ultimately led her to Jack.

In the present, Jack and Sally move into a cheap apartment. Jack fails to find a good job and ends up parking cars. His application for a Federal Civil Service position is rejected because his prison record makes him “untrustworthy,” which infuriates Sally. As they settle into married life, Jack becomes increasingly exhausted by Sally’s seemingly endless sexual appetite and begins to worry that he may be homosexual because of his past relationship with Billy Lancing, although he recognizes that he loves Sally differently. Determined to build a meaningful future, he dreams of education, culture, and raising a family. Sally encourages these ambitions by introducing him to art, opera, and the California coast, where Jack is captivated by the ocean and is swept off the reef by a powerful wave before safely regaining his footing.

Jack and Sally begin arguing more frequently about literature, art, and other matters of taste, exposing growing differences in their outlooks. Sally becomes increasingly dissatisfied with married life, struggling with boredom, isolation, and the limitations of being a housewife. One day, Jack is arrested after fighting four teenagers who accost him, but his parole is not revoked, the boys were from prominent families, self-defense was acknowledged, and they apologized. Wanting to give Sally a sense of purpose and believing children are essential to a meaningful marriage, Jack decides they should have a child. Sally initially resists the idea, and when her period is eight days late, she disappears for a week. Through Myron Bronson, she sends Jack a cruel message threatening to place the baby in an orphanage, triggering painful memories of his own childhood. She later returns, apologizes, tells Jack she truly wants both him and the baby, and the two reconcile.

Jack and Sally argue over where their baby should be born. Sally insists on a natural home birth, while Jack wants her to deliver in a hospital, but she ultimately gets her way. Their son is born at home, attended by a doctor, a nurse, and Jack. Myron Bronson asks to become the baby’s godfather, but Jack names him Billy Lancing Levitt after his deceased friend. Bronson gives the baby a silver mug containing $1,000, and Sally embraces motherhood with enthusiasm. Jack gradually grows to love his son and reflects on his own childhood in the orphanage, resolving to raise Billy with the love and security he never had. Although he becomes increasingly hopeful about family life, he and Sally continue to disagree about his future career and ambitions.

When Billy is seven months old, he falls ill with a high fever, terrifying both parents. After a tense night, the fever breaks, and he recovers. The incident highlights the strain on Sally. Jack realizes she is trapped and bored by domestic life. After they see a movie starring her wealthy ex-husband, she becomes withdrawn. A few nights later, she finds lipstick on Jack’s mouth from a barmaid and accuses him of infidelity. They have a bitter fight but reconcile. Although they resolve the argument, they do not make love before Sally’s period begins. By the time it ends, she has left with Billy.

Shortly after Sally leaves, Jack is released from parole after three years. With no one to celebrate with, he goes to a poolhall in the Tenderloin, where he meets Kol Mano, a gambler from his past. Mano shares news of several old acquaintances from Portland, many of whom are now dead or in prison. Mano mentions that he used to see Billy Lancing around the country and thinks he lives in Seattle—he does not know Billy is dead. Jack corrects him, but Mano quickly moves on with the conversation.

Haunted by memories, Jack asks to see Billy’s old pool cue, which is still stored at the hall. He confesses to the counterman that he loved Billy but never told him. Upset, Jack leaves, buys three fifths of whiskey, and gets drunk. He is sick for three days. When he recovers, a postcard from Sally is waiting. She and Billy are visiting her mother and stepfather and will be home on Friday.

After Sally and Billy return, the marriage deteriorates further. Sally begins staying out all night, leaving Billy with a babysitter or, on one occasion, completely alone. Their arguments about money and Jack’s job escalate. One night, she calls Jack from a phone booth, drunk, and taunts him by claiming to be having sex with a Black man. When she comes home, Jack has her bags packed and throws her out.

He raises Billy alone for several months until Sally arrives with Myron Bronson. She explains that she has divorced Jack, Bronson has divorced his wife, and they are getting married. She tells Jack that if he contests custody, the courts will inevitably favor the wife of a millionaire over an ex-convict earning only a few dollars a week, so he concedes without a fight. Later, Myron meets with Jack, explains he has always loved Sally, and asks to formally adopt Billy. Jack, agrees.

In 1963, a sixty-year-old Myron Bronson watches young Billy play on the beach at St. Tropez. Bronson reflects on his life of pleasure and wealth, feeling it is not enough and fearing his own mortality. He wants to return to the United States so Billy can have an American upbringing and eventually learn the truth about his real father. Bronson also contemplates the nuclear age, where wealth no longer guarantees survival.

His plans conflict with those of his wife, Sally, who is happy living in Paris and wants to send Billy to a Swiss boarding school. Sally calls the boy Myron rather than Billy and wants to change his name legally, though Bronson keeps putting it off. Sally, currently away on a yachting party with her first husband, has become grating to Bronson, and Billy does not like her any more, either. While waiting for his bridge partners, Bronson concludes that he must find a way to get rid of Sally while retaining custody of Billy. He hopes his motivation is for the boy’s sake and not from a desire to hurt her. The afternoon is then spoiled when he is paired with an inept player for the card game.