Within a few days, Lulu feels calmer, but not like the advertisements claim. She still feels wobbly and on display, as though she’s “suspended in one of [her] own gelatin salads” (159).

It’s Bitsy’s turn to host the card game. Lulu notices the Good Housekeeping cleaning schedule taped to the Betsers’ fridge. Hatti reveals to the others that Lulu passed out a few nights ago, but Lulu assures them that she’s fine. She says that the doctor diagnosed her with “housewife syndrome,” and Nora guesses that he put her on Miltown. Nora wonders if she should get some too. Lulu says that all Nora has to do is tell her doctor she isn’t happy. Nora suggests that no one is happy day in and day out: She loves her kids, but that doesn’t make life easy. She says that, a couple years ago, she read about a woman who got a lobotomy to cure her malaise. At this, Bitsy grows uncomfortable, smoothing her perfectly curled bangs over her forehead.

While waiting to use the guest bathroom, Lulu looks at Betser family pictures in the hallway. She sees an old picture of Bitsy’s sister, Ellen, but notices that there are no pictures of Katherine. She hears Bitsy describing her missing gray cat to Nora. Lulu goes to use the primary bathroom and is pleased to see that the bedroom isn’t immaculately clean like the rest of the house. In the bathroom, she finds Bitsy’s Miltown. Lulu then sneaks into the den, finds a newspaper article about the “despondent wife” in Knollwood, and realizes that Bitsy must have known her.

Just then, Katherine walks in. Lulu claims that she got lost while looking for the bathroom. Lulu invites Katherine over to play with Wesley again, but Katherine says she’s not allowed: Bitsy claims that Wesley gets Katherine into trouble. This makes Lulu angry and dizzy. She storms into the kitchen to find the women eating her gelatin salad. Just as she’s about to erupt, Bitsy pulls a short gray hair from her mouth. Nora laughs it off, but Lulu sees recognition on Bitsy’s face. Lulu knows that the hair is feline, and she believes Bitsy knows it too.

Lulu is in the bath when Henry comes in to use the toilet. He tells her not to wait up for him—he has to finish some work before bed. She realizes that he doesn’t really see her anymore; she is nude, but he doesn’t respond to her body. He asks if she’s been taking her pills every day, and she says yes. They make her feel numb, but she’d rather feel discontented and experience moments of joy. On the pills, she’s just watching her life happen.

A few hours later, Lulu awakens and goes to let Luna in, but she hears Henry and Gary in the den. Gary explains how much Bitsy’s cat means to her, and he asks if Lulu might have seen it. Bitsy had some trouble a while back: She stopped cleaning, served TV dinners, and always seemed unhappy. Henry asks if the cat helped. Gary says that it did a bit, but they tried “pills and such” too (178). He starts to offer another suggestion, but Henry interrupts and says that they have a doctor. When Gary leaves, Lulu is reminded of the sly fox her father had to deal with after it got inside the henhouse.

Months pass. Lulu stops taking Miltown. Because all the wives are on the same Good Housekeeping schedule, Lulu knows when everyone else will be at the store. She decides to sneak into the Betsers’ home and see what else Bitsy is hiding. In the den, she again finds the article reporting on the woman’s suicide in Knollwood. Her name was Ellen Craske; Katherine is listed as her surviving daughter, and Bitsy is her sister. Lulu keeps snooping and finds a hospital discharge paper with Bitsy’s diagnosis of treatment-resistant depression and the procedure performed: a lobotomy that Gary signed off on.

Lulu hears a car door. Katherine and Bitsy enter through the garage. Lulu runs to the front door and tries to shut it quietly behind her when the knob slips from her hand. Bitsy is there, and she asks if Lulu came to get her dish back. Lulu lies and says that she did but then noticed that the door wasn’t latched properly. Lulu suggests that maybe this is how Bitsy’s cat escaped. While walking away, she wonders who Bitsy was and who Lulu will be if Henry takes Gary’s advice.

That night, Lulu begins tasting sounds. She wonders if Henry would ever do to her what Gary did to Bitsy. She gets up and cleans the entire house, telling herself that she’ll get back on schedule next week. Lulu wonders if Ellen left a note or if she simply laid her head in the oven and went to sleep.

The next day, Lulu keeps thinking about Ellen. She tries to lie down during naptime, but then Henry’s secretary calls to let her know that Jack is coming to dinner. Lulu decides to prepare three TV dinners and plate them so that they look homemade. When Henry arrives home with Jack, Lulu welcomes them and then goes to the kitchen to get the food. Henry follows her to add that Gary needs a plate too; he stopped by to give Henry something, and Jack invited him to stay. Lulu quickly replates everything to look like four full servings. When Gary jokes about Bitsy’s cooking, Lulu snaps at him, shocking Henry and amusing Jack.

When Lulu plates dessert, she realizes that something went wrong: It looks disgusting. Afterward, as she washes dishes at the sink, Gary enters menacingly. When Lulu tries to get past him to say goodbye to Jack, Gary blocks her path, asking if there’s something she wants to tell him. He cryptically adds something about stray cats not lasting long. Lulu responds that she hopes Bitsy finds the cat soon. Gary doesn’t appreciate “hysterics” and will do anything necessary to keep his own life calm. The hair stands up on Lulu’s arms until Gary leaves. Later, she wonders if Gary did what he did to Bitsy because she was “hysterical.”

Henry announces that he’s going to bed. Annoyed that he didn’t thank her, Lulu follows him and tells him he’s “welcome” anyway. She wants to tell him that she hates their house, that her skin feels too tight, and that she imagines the woman who died by suicide but says nothing. He tells her not to be dramatic and walks away. When Henry’s asleep, Lulu thinks about their past. They haven’t had sex since before Esther’s birth. In Henry’s suit jacket, she finds a folded-up paper with the name and phone number for a Dr. Ruthledge. Thinking about Gary as the fox in the henhouse, she concludes that Henry thinks Lulu is like Bitsy and that Gary wants to show him how to turn her into the “happy housewife [she] should’ve been” (208).

Lulu decides to be the housewife Henry wants. She takes the pills so that no one will do to her what Gary did to Bitsy. She falls asleep on the couch with the cat in her lap, and Henry wakes her. When he raises his voice, she tells him not to wake Esther. His voice changes, and he cries, taking the pink bundle from Lulu’s arms—the first time she’s seen him hold the baby. Henry unrolls the bundle, and the blanket is empty. Lulu can’t understand where the baby is. Henry holds her, asking if she remembers that Esther is gone.

Lulu stares at the blanket while Henry makes a call. She feels utterly alone. Wesley comes in, asking if she’s taking photos again, and she realizes that proof of Esther will be on the film. At her direction, Wesley runs to get her camera, but he opens the back, exposing the film to the light and ruining it. She yells at him to stop, and he drops the camera, breaking it. When Lulu tells him that the photos were of Esther, Wesley says that he misses her too.

Lulu fears that Henry is calling Dr. Ruthledge, so she goes outside barefoot in her nightgown, carrying the pink blanket. She runs, realizing that she should have taken the car. Henry finds her at her favorite tree. She makes him be quiet so that she can listen to the birds. When he holds her tightly, Lulu accuses him of having an affair with his secretary, but he reassures her that he only loves her. He asks her to be quiet, as people are watching.

Gary comes out and asks if Henry needs help. Lulu’s shouts scare Luna, who scratches Bitsy. Nora arrives, putting her arm around Bitsy, and Lulu tells them all that Gary made Bitsy get a lobotomy. Gary laughs, calls Lulu “crazy,” and suggests that no one will ever believe her. He tells everyone that she stole Bitsy’s cat, broke into their home, and tried to take Katherine. Lulu retorts that Katherine is actually Bitsy’s niece. Bitsy stiffens when Gary touches her but counters that Katherine is her daughter. When the wind lifts Bitsy’s hair, Lulu sees no lobotomy scar. She allows Henry to carry her to the car, and they drive away.