Rosie surprises Don by announcing she is unexpectedly pregnant.

Don has an emotional meltdown, retreats to the elevator, and gets into a confrontation with neighbor Jerome.

Don and Rosie are fired from their bartending jobs after Don questions whether a celebrity customer is pregnant.

Gene arrives at Don and Rosie's New York apartment to begin a Columbia University sabbatical.

Don secretly arranges to move himself and Rosie into George's extra beer-storage apartment as a surprise.

Police detain Don after spotting him filming children alone at a New York playground.

Social worker Lydia takes over Don's police-related assessment at Bellevue Hospital.

Sonia agrees to pose as Rosie in Don's first formal interview with social worker Lydia.

Don misses Rosie's first ultrasound appointment, unaware he was expected to attend.

Columbia's dean assigns Don to oversee a research project studying babies raised by lesbian mothers.

Rosie admits she is embarrassed by Don and announces she will return to Melbourne alone to raise their baby.

Don abandons a planned dinner with Rosie to help George's son the Prince, who appears suicidal.

Sonia goes into premature labor and Don guides Rosie in stabilizing her until paramedics arrive.

Don boards Rosie's flight to Melbourne but is identified as a terror threat, forcing the plane to turn back.

Rosie changes her mind about leaving after seeing Don's Bud diagram and a video of him with the study baby.

Don Tillman's comfortable New York life is upended when his wife Rosie announces an unexpected pregnancy, triggering an emotional meltdown that deepens his fear of being an unfit father. After he and Rosie lose their bartending jobs, friend Gene arrives and offers guidance, while the couple moves into their client George's beer cellar apartment. Don's attempt to learn about fatherhood by observing children at a playground leads to a police detainment and the reappearance of judgmental social worker Lydia. As Rosie grows more distant, she eventually announces her plan to return to Melbourne alone, prompting Don to take increasingly desperate measures to win her back. A dramatic chain of events — including stabilizing Sonia's premature labor, being mistaken for a terrorist mid-flight, and finally revealing his Bud diagram — slowly convinces Rosie to stay. The novel ends with Don and Rosie reconciled and flying back to Melbourne, where their son Hudson is born.

The main story of Don and Rosie's marriage under pressure.

Don recalls a past lunch where social worker Lydia declared he should never have children.

Don confesses to Rosie that he invited Gene to stay with them, and she angrily slams the bedroom door.

Bar patrons treat Don's cocktail memory as entertainment and compare him to a Rain Man film character.

George hires Don to monitor his extensive beer collection after Don demonstrates knowledge of proper refrigeration.

George agrees to limit his upstairs drumming after Don negotiates with him during a boys' night out.

Don attends the Good Fathers program with Dave, and facilitator Jack declares Don has passed after a martial arts test.

Don invites Dave, Gene, and George to witness the birth of a cow at a farm in Connecticut.

Don and his male friends each confess a personal secret at a bar, revealing hidden anxieties and deceptions.

Lydia reveals she lost a patient to a murder-suicide caused by postpartum psychosis linked to a neglectful husband.

Don creates a financial accounting system that uncovers Dave's business is owed over fifty thousand dollars.

Sonia arranges a meeting with Lydia, who admits she judged Don too quickly because of a past patient's husband.

Don formally introduces Rosie to Lydia and reveals the truth about Sonia's impersonation scheme.

Gene and Sonia correct the flaws in Rosie's departure spreadsheet to argue she should stay with Don.

Don's friends gather at the apartment and each share a way that Don has helped them significantly.

Don and Rosie fly to Melbourne together and their son Hudson is born on Valentine's Day.

Before the pregnancy even begins, Don is haunted by a past incident in which social worker Lydia declared he should never have children, and he quietly arranges Gene's stay without telling Rosie. As he navigates New York life, Don finds support among an unlikely group of male friends — George, Dave, and Gene — who help him prepare for fatherhood in unconventional ways, from negotiating drumming hours to attending a cow's birth to sharing their own parental secrets over drinks. Don's work at the Good Fathers program reveals his emotional self-control, while his financial accounting work quietly saves Dave and Sonia's struggling business. When Sonia secretly arranges a meeting with Lydia, the social worker finally admits her bias, and Don's wider network rallies to correct Rosie's departure spreadsheet. In the end, Don's friends gather to celebrate his impact on each of their lives, providing the final push that convinces Rosie to reconsider leaving. The novel closes with Don and Rosie united in Melbourne, welcoming son Hudson on Valentine's Day.

The friendships and side stories shaping Don's journey to fatherhood.

Don privately fears that Rosie will one day realize her error in choosing him as a husband.

Dave reveals that he and Sonia conceived their baby through IVF using donated sperm.

Don's landlord threatens to evict him after neighbor Jerome files a formal assault complaint.

Gene advises Don to tell Rosie he is excited about becoming a father.

Don secretly uses the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale to assess Rosie's emotional wellbeing.

Rosie declines Don's offer to help with the statistics section of her PhD thesis.

Rosie's father Phil sends Don the eternity ring that belonged to Rosie's late mother.

Don and Rosie dine on their apartment balcony for their anniversary, and Don presents the eternity ring.

Don plays with a study baby for the Lesbian Mothers Project but the administrators refuse to include his footage.

Rosie dismisses Don's engineered stroller design and moves her belongings to sleep in her study.

Don learns that Rosie has been quietly getting statistics help from PhD colleague Stefan.

Claudia tells Don she is seeing someone else, signaling that her marriage to Gene is likely finished.

Don makes a spreadsheet to evaluate his qualities as a potential father and concludes his negatives outweigh his positives.

Don tells Rosie on the plane that she is the only person who has ever truly understood him.

After Hudson is born, Don suggests tango lessons to keep his and Rosie's marriage exciting and unpredictable.

From the opening pages, Don carries a quiet fear that Rosie will one day see her marriage to him as a mistake, a fear compounded by early setbacks including a landlord's eviction threat and the revelation that Dave and Sonia conceived through IVF. Gene's coaching pushes Don to connect with Rosie emotionally, while Don's secret use of the EPDS questionnaire and Rosie's rejection of his thesis help reveal the growing gap between them. Their anniversary dinner offers a brief moment of closeness, but Rosie's dismissal of Don's stroller design, her retreat to the study, and Don's discovery that she has been confiding in colleague Stefan signal deeper estrangement. A series of quiet revelations — Claudia's new relationship, Phil's gesture with the eternity ring, and Don's brutal self-assessment spreadsheet — force both Don and Rosie to confront what their relationship truly means. On the turned-back plane, Don makes his most honest declaration yet, telling Rosie she is the only person who has ever truly understood him. The birth of Hudson and Don's suggestion of tango lessons signal a renewed commitment to making their unconventional marriage work.