The next day, Arthur suggests a drive to a food market in Overbury, the next town over. There, they run into Joan Garnett, an old acquaintance, who expresses surprise that they married, calling them unsuited for each other. Back home, Arthur naps. Mabel considers Joan’s comment and remembers that she wanted to refuse Arthur’s marriage proposal years ago.

Later, Arthur returns from walking Olly and clutches his chest, dismissing the pain as indigestion. That night in bed, he reminisces about their youth with Bill and with Dorothy “Dot” Brightmore, Mabel’s childhood best friend. The mention of Dot’s name startles Mabel. Arthur soon falls asleep.

The next morning, Mabel realizes that Arthur has died in his sleep. She talks to him as if he were still listening and makes tea for them both out of habit before taking his hand and confirming that his body has grown cold. She calls the doctor, who confirms the death, and arranges for a funeral home to collect his body.

While she waits, Mabel flashes back to a time when she refused Arthur’s sexual advances after they were married; she feels guilty that she could never return Arthur’s desire for her.

In the present, she tells his body that she loves him, describing a companionate love built over many years. When funeral-home staff arrive, Mabel kisses Arthur’s forehead in farewell. She stays in the kitchen as they carry him out, and the house falls quiet.

After Arthur’s body is removed, Mabel avoids their bed but eventually sleeps deeply in it. When she wakes, she finds a small note on the floor in Arthur’s handwriting with the instruction to “[f]ind D.”

She assumes that “D” refers to Dot, her best friend who vanished just before Mabel’s wedding. She remembers writing unanswered letters to Dot and how Arthur discouraged a search at the time. Wondering why he would want her to find Dot now, she checks his private drawer for clues but finds nothing. She pockets the note, focused on the mystery.

Over the next week, Mabel stays in bed grieving. She finally writes a five-item to-do list, mostly about funeral arrangements, but ends it with the directive to find Dot. She calls relatives, including Arthur’s sister, Mary, to inform them of his death and contacts the funeral parlor.

She takes Olly for his first walk in days and visits the local church. The vicar joins her. Mabel asks about Dot, and the vicar recalls Arthur saying that Dot was meant to marry Bill. The vicar adds that Arthur visited the church weekly for years. Mabel realizes how much she never knew about her husband.

At Arthur’s funeral, Mabel gives an unplanned eulogy describing how he supported her after Bill’s death; her story hinges on the fact that she married him because of his kindness to her in that time of grief. At the wake in the Carpenters pub, Mary says that Mabel was lucky. Mabel remembers getting drunk with Dot at Bill’s funeral and feels briefly unsettled when she mistakes a cousin for Arthur.

Recalling Arthur’s advice to find a purpose, Mabel recognizes her next step. She leaves the wake and walks home, resolving to search for Dot for herself, not just for Arthur. That evening, she watches the sunset alone in the garden for the first time.

Days after the funeral, Mabel goes to the supermarket and feels an impulse to steal a jar of piccalilli. Erin, a teenage employee, notices but doesn’t say anything to her manager. Mabel returns the piccalilli to the shelf. When she checks out, Erin notes that she would never rat out someone stealing food and offers to talk. Mabel declines and goes home.

At home, Mabel looks through old photo albums. She studies a picture of herself, Dot, Bill, and Arthur in a happy moment; she notices for the first time that Arthur is looking at Dot, not her. She then hears a voice in her head that she believes is Dot, urging Mabel to find her.

About a month after Arthur’s death, a woman named Julie arrives and introduces herself as Mabel’s new caregiver. Mabel is shocked to learn that Arthur arranged and prepaid for a three-month package of daily care visits without telling her that he was ill. Julie is friendly but slightly sad. She shares that her husband, Martin, recently left her.

Mabel accepts the help and asks Julie to search for Dot online. As Julie makes tea and sings in the kitchen, Mabel reflects that she always liked hearing Arthur putter around the house and feels an appreciation for the company.

A few days later, Mabel runs into Erin at the church graveyard, and they introduce themselves. Mabel admits that she tried to take the piccalilli jar to test if she had become invisible with age. Erin confides that her family disapproves of her sexuality, which makes Erin hide her attraction to girls from them. After Erin leaves, Mabel goes to Arthur’s unmarked grave and tells him that she will find Dot.

On the walk home, she meets a young woman named Kirsty with her baby, Dotty, whose name startles her. Kirsty immediately bonds with Olly, which surprises Mabel since she thinks of Olly as an unfriendly dog. Back home, Mabel has a brief vision of Arthur standing by the bookshelf.

During Julie’s second week of visits, the two grow comfortable, though Mabel privately labels Julie an over-sharer. As they change the bedsheets, they discuss finding “the one.” Julie does not believe in this idea. Mabel comments that for her, love once felt like fear and nausea—“like [she] was standing on the edge of a fifty-storey building, preparing to jump” (68). Julie talks about her husband leaving her for a woman named Estelle and mentions taking classes from an American dance teacher named Patty.

Julie suggests a walk, and they go out arm in arm, sharing laughter. On a whim, Mabel decides to buy something for dinner that is not on her weekly plan, a small break from routine.