Faye drives to PT’s home, where a post-funeral reception is taking place. The house is filled with memories for her, since she, Campbell, and Henry often spent time there as students. She recalls memories of PT and Sarah (who died right before they graduated). At the reception, Faye has a tense encounter with Campbell’s wife, Corrine Holland. Corrine and Faye dislike one another and Faye suspects that Corrinne envies her professional success. Many individuals from the college administration are present at the funeral, and several offer to introduce Faye to Emma King. Emma is a student at the college who recently received a prestigious writing scholarship; as part of the scholarship, she has submitted a draft screenplay to Faye for feedback, but Faye has not yet read the screenplay. Emma was also working closely alongside PT up until the time of his sudden death. 

From an upstairs guest room, Faye looks out the window and sees Henry and his wife arguing in the garden. Faye returns downstairs for dinner and meets Emma. During the dinner, she observes Henry caring for his young daughters. When one of the daughters begins to have a tantrum, Henry and his family leave the event abruptly. Henry departs without ever having spoken to or acknowledged Faye.

As Faye leaves the reception, Emma insists on walking with her. Emma tells Faye that the official story of PT’s death is suspicious. She claims that she was the one to find PT’s body, not the house cleaner (as Faye was previously informed). Emma elaborates that PT canceled his classes the day before he died and emailed her to tell he had something urgent to tell her. When she arrived at his house the next day, he was dead and she noticed that his hands were covered in Band-Aids. Faye urges her to speak to the police.

Faye discovers that her rental car is blocked by Campbell’s vehicle so she must go to the local fraternity house to find him and ask him to move it. Emma accompanies her. At the frat house, Faye meets Corrine’s younger brother, Win, who is a student at the college. In an upstairs room, she finds Campbell, Henry, and a visibly intoxicated Corrine. Everyone, including Emma and Win, seems interested in the history between Henry and Faye. At Campbell’s urging, Henry offers Faye a formal apology for their past. Faye accepts, though the gesture feels forced and awkward. Henry leaves almost immediately afterwards.

In her hotel room that night, Faye attempts to log into her email but finds herself locked out after too many attempts. She emails her assistant for help. She also alludes to a message from “the person I should not be speaking to” (35) making a cryptic reference to a past meeting. As she drifts into a reverie, she recalls her sophomore year of college and her first sexual encounter with Henry. She had heard rumors that Henry engaged in kinky sexual practices with his then-girlfriend, which left her intrigued. Since she and Henry had a shared social circle at the small college, they knew each other and she began to suspect that he was also attracted to her. 

At a party at PT’s house, she talked with Henry about his upcoming Thanksgiving plans. She marveled at the generational wealth shared by Henry, Campbell, and PT: Their families had adjoining lake houses in a remote location (Lake Wanika) while Faye grew up in a much more modest midwestern family. Later, Faye and Henry slipped up to a bedroom, and he initiated a sexual encounter in which she was required to obey his instructions. Faye found the experience extremely arousing and this encounter cemented her desire for Henry.

The next morning Faye makes her way to the lake for the ceremony to scatter PT’s ashes. She reflects on the sadness she felt when she learned of Sarah’s suicide after the latter suffered recurring miscarriages. She arrives at the lake at the same time as Henry does: His wife drops him off but is not staying for the ceremony. Faye shares Emma’s strange story about PT’s death, which Henry agrees is bizarre. He then reveals he has brought some of Faye’s old belongings that she left behind years ago and offers to drop them off at her hotel room after the service. Faye agrees to the plan. They meet up with Campbell and Corrine, and Faye is surprised to see Corrine seems pleased to see she and Henry together.

At the dockside ceremony, Faye delivers a moving speech about her connection to PT. She was the recipient of the same writing scholarship that Emma received, and these funds, as well as the mentorship she received from PT, transformed the trajectory of her life. 

After the service, Henry and Faye drive back to the hotel in her car. She reveals that she is not immediately returning to Los Angeles: She has booked an isolated cabin nearby to spend some time finalizing a script. Henry goes to fetch the clothes he is returning to her. Alone in her room, Faye takes an urgent call from her agent, who also adds Faye’s husband to the call. Faye learns that a major actress wants to read the script for her new film. This has the potential to be a major career breakthrough, but Faye must finish the script within one week. To complete the work, Faye tells her agent and husband that she will be completely unreachable until it is done.

Soon after the call ends, Henry arrives at her room with her old clothes. He makes them both drinks and he questions her about her relationship with her husband, noting that “you’re not acting married” (66). Faye confesses she wants a divorce but fears it would ruin her. She also explains that her husband is in London on a work trip and that no one will be reaching out to her for the next week. Henry confronts her about the TV episode, asserting that her depiction of their breakup is false. As the confrontation continues, Faye grows severely disoriented and realizes that Henry put something in her drink. Henry admits that everything leading up to this moment has been a ploy to get her to trust him and agree to meet him alone. 

As she loses consciousness, Henry takes her phone. Someone knocks at the door, but Henry calmly reassures them that everything is fine and Faye is too heavily sedated to cry for help.