Don reflects on a previous laundry incident in which neighbor Jerome used their shared laundry facilities to dye Don and Rosie’s light-colored laundry purple. Don sees Jerome’s decision as him trying to be efficient, while Rosie sees it as theft. He is more concerned about his friend Gene, a fellow professor from his and Rosie’s original home of Melbourne, Australia, who cheated on his wife Claudia. Don is loyal to his six friends: Thus, he spoke to his dean about offering Gene a sabbatical at Columbia, and promised Gene that he would find him somewhere to live. He sees himself as acting with “a level of empathy that would not have been available to me prior to living with Rosie” (10). Rosie dislikes Gene, and Don feels anxious about revealing his visit. Having acquired cocktail skills from helping Rosie identify her biological father (in The Rosie Project), Don bartends part time with her to supplement their income. He makes two cocktails with Rosie’s orange juice and gives himself an extra vodka on ice, which settles his anxiety. When Rosie tastes the alcohol, she spits it out and announces she is pregnant.

Don is stunned by Rosie’s announcement, as they hadn’t planned pregnancy. He has an emotional meltdown and implements his “emergency plan”: He runs into the apartment elevator where he feels safe. Jerome gets on the elevator and thinks Don is being aggressive; Don, who is trained in martial arts, reacts in self-defense. Both men run into the street, and Don runs to the apartment of his friends Dave and Sonia. He admits he had a mental health crisis and believes he has a psychiatric problem. Dave asks him to look him in the eye and swear he would never hurt Rosie. Don is uncomfortable looking people in the eye, but his attempt appeases Dave.

Dave gives Don a ride home and asks for help in checking the beer cellar he installed for a client. Once home, Don is hugged by Rosie. They have sex and eat the meal Don made.

Rosie experiences morning sickness, and Don reflects that this is likely an evolutionary tactic to prevent a mother from ingesting harmful substances during a critical stage of fetal development. She answers his questions about her pregnancy but warns him not to stress her out. He needs to sort out his feelings regarding their baby: Don is happy in the way that “[he] would be happy if the captain of an aircraft in which [Don] was traveling announced that he had succeeded in restarting one engine after both had failed” (27).

Don defers telling Rosie about Gene’s visit and accompanies Dave to his client’s beer cellar. The client bought two four-bedroom apartments and is using one to store his beer, which is piped to his apartment above. Don thinks the client, George, an older British man, looks like a retired plumber. When Don demonstrates knowledge of proper refrigeration of alcohol, George hires him to check on his beer. Knowing Dave is working hard to start his own business and support Sonia, who has become pregnant through IVF, Don agrees to help. When he returns home, his landlord says Jerome reported him for assault; the landlord threatens to throw him out of his apartment.

Don speaks with his mother, who remains in Melbourne, Australia, with his father and younger brother, Trevor. Later, he suggests to Rosie that they call their embryo “Bud” for “Baby Under Development” (34). He finally confesses that he invited Gene to stay with them. When Don attempts to present a list of benefits, Rosie goes into their bedroom and slams the door. He researches Dave’s client George and realizes he is the drummer for a once-famous band called the Dead Kings. The next morning, he lectures Rosie about the caffeine in her coffee. She hugs and tells Don that she will pay him back later, and he wonders how “a person’s emotional stage could be deduced from such an inconsistent set of messages” (37).

Don and Rosie report for their shift at the bar. The new manager wants them to try to sell wine instead of cocktails, and Rosie gets annoyed and goes home; Don stays. He demonstrates his ability to remember ingredients and recommend drinks, and a large party treats him as entertainment. A woman in the party, a celebrity he does not recognize, compares him to Dustin Hoffman’s character in the film Rain Man. Don does not take offense, as he does not see any logic in this comparison and assumes “Loud Woman” is intoxicated. Loud Woman demands he recommend a cocktail, but he asks if she is pregnant before he recommends alcohol. On the subway home, he creates a list of current problems, which now includes the loss of his and Rosie’s part-time jobs. Don calls George.

Since Rosie loves surprises, Don decides to surprise her with a new apartment; Dave helps him pack. The landlord resists when Don asks for his deposit, but Dave, who wants to practice confrontation, steps in and threatens to have the air-conditioning inspected. George agrees to let Don and Rosie stay in his beer apartment but warns them that he will practice drums upstairs. Don decides to turn one of the bathrooms into his office. Some beer spills, leaving a strong smell on the carpet. The new apartment better matches the couple’s dream apartment, and Rosie is delighted. Don makes dinner, and Rosie asks how he feels about being a father.

Don struggles to answer Rosie’s question regarding fatherhood because he recalls the Bluefin Tuna Incident: In the past, he met friends Isaac and Judy for lunch, and they invited professional colleague Seymour, whom they were setting up with social worker Lydia. Don’s remarks about courtship embarrassed Lydia, and she was further outraged when he ordered bluefin tuna, an unsustainably sourced fish. She accused him of being insensitive, but Seymour defended him as someone worthy of piloting his plane if it went down. She expressed disbelief at him “[wanting] Rain Man flying [his] plane” (64). He interrogated Don about his ability to function socially and announced he isn’t autistic, because this implies dysfunction. Lydia told Don to do the world a favor and not have children, before leaving the restaurant.