A woman named Grace returns to a neighborhood in the Ottawa Valley. She’s looking for a summer house that belonged to the Travers family; she last visited the house 40 years earlier. Much has changed, including a proliferation of roads and houses. Eventually, Grace finds the right place. New houses now block old paths, she notes. With the house in front of her, Grace speculates about what made her seek it out. She should have known that it would change, but she wonders how upset she might have been to find it gone completely.

The house was built by Mr. Travers, Grace recalls, who intended it as a wedding gift for his new wife. Mrs. Travers had married for a second time. Before remarrying, she had lived in an apartment with Neil, her son from her first marriage. She later had two other children: Gretchen and Maury. Her old apartment, Mr. Travers had said, was like a prison, and she could remember many of the strange people who lived beside her and her son.

Grace thinks back fondly on the summer when she first met the Travers family. She was a waitress in a hotel where she was also living at the time. The Travers family dined at the hotel, and Maury approached Grace, asking her on a date. She was unsure at first, worried that it was a practical joke. However, Maury accepted her vague “okay” as confirmation and took her out. They went to the movies together; Grace had strong (very unfavorable) opinions about Father of the Bride, particularly how it presented the female characters. Grace didn’t believe that girls or women should feign stupidity to attract men. She didn’t believe that motherhood should be portrayed as an inevitability in every woman’s life, though she struggled to voice these strong opinions. Maury listened to her attentively, and she felt herself falling in love with him. Maury took a romantic view of Grace’s tragic, poor childhood. In addition to telling her that she wasn’t like other girls, he spoke positively about her to his mother. Mrs. Travers insisted that he invite Grace to dinner.

Straight away, Grace was drawn to Mrs. Travers. The entire Travers family was so different from her own that she was fascinated. Grace was raised by her great aunt and uncle after her mother died and her father abandoned her. Her great aunt and great uncle were quiet, kind people. Her great uncle taught her to cane chairs, hoping that she might one day take over his caning business. Instead, Grace wanted to go to school. She took high school classes, studying as much as she could. She couldn’t afford to go to college but wanted to study as many classes as possible at no cost until she settled on a future. This passion for learning is what Grace shared with Mrs. Travers, a voracious reader.

Grace made sure that her shifts lined up in such a way that she was invited to the Travers family dinner at the expense of single dates with Maury. Now, her memories of these dinners are far clearer than her dates with Maury. After dinner, the family played word games. These games delighted Grace, though she recalls that Mavis (the wife of Mrs. Travers’s first son and Maury’s stepbrother, Neil) once refused to play. Mavis was often blunt and standoffish. She made passive-aggressive remarks, which Grace didn’t appreciate. On this occasion, Mavis was alone. Her husband and children weren’t present, so she felt no need to be polite. She was rude and withdrew from the game, though Mrs. Travers made excuses for her, reminding everyone how stressful parenting can be. Grace spent a lot of time at the Travers house reading books. Mrs. Travers spoke at length about the books, and Grace liked to listen to her speak. At this time, Maury began to talk about their future as a couple. He seemed to take it for granted that they would marry. Grace didn’t correct him. She began to think of her future alongside Maury, picturing her life married to an engineer.

Maury saved to buy an engagement ring for Grace. She saved so that she could visit him. However, these plans seemed ephemeral and unreal to Grace, just like when she was expected to take over her great uncle’s business. More pressing was her desire for physical intimacy. She wanted to have sex with Maury, but whenever they were alone together, he seemed hesitant. They never consummated their relationship, but after each failed consummation, they were more performatively affectionate with one another. This disappointed Grace, though she recognized that she was equally at fault for saying nothing. She continued to date Maury and to visit the Travers family during the summer and fall, including visits to the lake house. During one visit, Mrs. Travers unexpectedly shared her concerns about Neil. More than Maury or Gretchen, Mrs. Travers was concerned for Neil. Soon after, Maury told Grace that Mrs. Travers occasionally needed medical treatment for her “nerves,” which he thinks resulted from her first husband’s death by suicide, though he isn’t completely sure. Mrs. Travers seemed better after these occasional hospitalizations.

Grace spent Thanksgiving with the Travers family. Mrs. Travers seemed to be acting strangely, Grace noticed. Grace played with the grandchildren as dinner was prepared. She cut her foot while playing on a swing. At that moment, Neil arrived. This was the first time Grace met Neil. Since Neil was a doctor, he treated her wound but recommended that she get a tetanus shot. Grace thought she smelled alcohol and mint on his breath. As Neil prepared to drive her to the nearby hospital to get the shot, Mrs. Travers ran to the car and begged Grace to stop Neil from drinking. Grace said nothing. At the hospital, Neil arranged for her shot. When Maury arrived, however, Neil told the nurse to lie, telling Maury that Grace and he had already left. Grace went along with Neil’s lie but wasn’t sure why. They snuck out of the hospital. This afternoon is fixed in Grace’s mind very clearly, even while her other memories are tangled and unclear. As they rode in the car, she recalled Mrs. Tavers’s words. They drove to a hotel, where Neil secured a drink despite the laws against serving alcohol. The bartender insisted, however, that Grace only have a Coke. Next, they drove up the highway. While driving, Neil licked Grace’s hand. He assured her that she was safe. Grace admitted that she would not be his future sister in law: She didn’t plan to marry Maury, and Neil wasn’t surprised. He decided that Grace should learn to drive at this moment, so she took over, driving a car for the first time.

They drove to a derelict house. Grace believed that a bootlegger lived inside. Neil went in, but Grace stayed in the car. She thought to herself about how Neil seemed to understand her better than Maury ever could. Maury had led too nice a life, she believed, whereas Neil had known darkness and tragedy. She fell asleep and dreamed about her great-uncle. When she woke, Neil was at the wheel again. He was drinking whiskey from a flask. He became increasingly drunk. Grace realized that she had been trying to impress Neil. This made her uncomfortable. She decided that Neil’s alcohol addiction was caused by depression. When he pulled into a park, he took a nap, and Grace explored the park. As she sat on a swing, she realized that any sexual tension between herself and Neil had vanished when she realized that sadness motivated his alcohol addiction.

Grace returned to the car. She couldn’t wake Neil, even though night was approaching. When she started the car, he roused. She drove them to her place of work. Upon arriving at the hotel, Neil revealed that he had simply been pretending to be asleep. He didn’t want to startle Grace. They hugged goodbye; Grace still thinks about this hug and its complicated, apparently contradictory subtext. The following day, Grace learned about a terrible car crash. A person died, and their body was severely burned in the fire. Grace instinctively knew that it was Neil, and her boss implied that the driver purposely crashed to die by suicide. Maury wrote to Grace, asking her to say that Neil had insisted that she go with him. Grace confessed to Maury that she wanted to go with Neil. Some days later, Mr. Travers met Grace at the hotel. He was kind, explaining how sad the family was about Neil’s death and his alcohol addiction. When Mrs. Travers was ready, he said, he would take her on a vacation. He handed Grace an envelope containing a $1,000 check. Grace momentarily thought about giving the money back. She still wonders whether she should have returned it. She kept it, however, because (back then) it was enough to give her a start in life.