Nine minutes into the lecture, Julie interrupts Don to ask him to simplify his points, as the audience has a much less technical understanding of the topic. Don adheres to his prepared presentation, confident that at least a handful of attendees could follow his logic. As he discusses the genetic and environmental factors that contribute to disorders like Asperger’s, Julie interrupts again to state that Asperger’s is natural and therefore no one’s fault. Shocked by the implication that people could have a negative perception of the disorder, Don highlights advantages to the way a person with Asperger’s thinks, including “organization, focus, and rational detachment” (10). When a mother questions whether that means children with this disorder lack emotion, Don offers a scenario of what to do with a crying baby if you are hiding from violent enemies in a basement and have a gun on hand. While the children offer a slew of solutions, the parents say nothing or try to silence their children. Don uses this as proof that being too focused on emotions can lead to poor results. The children, whom Don refers to as “aspies” (12), feel validated and begin chanting, and Don is confused by the parents’ attempts to calm their children. He chalks it up to their favoring social conventions over their children’s self-expression.

The lecture ends early, which pleases Don. As he packs, Julie tells him that educators often avoid the term aspies because it implies the disorder is a good thing, believing that the behaviors exhibited by children with autism will lead to interpersonal challenges if not addressed. Still, she appreciates that he gave the children and their parents hope that they can have life successes despite having Asperger’s—he specifically mentioned a Danish technology company that intentionally hired “aspies.” Julie invites Don out for a drink, touching his arm, but he declines because he wants to use the unexpected extra time to return to his schedule.

Don thinks about the two friends he had before meeting Gene and Claudia: his older sister, an unmarried math teacher who died of an unspecified illness due to “gross and inexcusable medical incompetence” (14), and his elderly neighbor, Daphne. Don had developed a close relationship with Daphne, whose husband was in a care facility because he had dementia. One of Daphne’s most intriguing qualities was the fact that she believed Don would make a good husband and that it would not be impossible for him to find a match. While this is logically sound, Don knows he has a small chance of succeeding in this way. Eventually, Daphne developed dementia as well, and Don stopped visiting her.

Two days after the lecture, Julie asks Don if he would like to go to dinner under the guise that she would like to hear more about the Danish company he mentioned. Don asks what she would like to know, as he intends to research the answer, and she says she is interested in how the company determines how applicants have Asperger’s. Don hypothesizes that it uses a questionnaire as a candidate filter, which gives him the idea for a solution to the Wife Problem. Instead of further failed attempts at dating, Don will develop a questionnaire that will help him weed out incompatible women until he can find the ideal partner; he calls this the Wife Project.

In his excitement to get the Wife Project started, Don makes several attempts to track down Gene to discuss it. During one attempt, he interrupts a lecture Gene is giving, which upsets the dean because there were potential investors in attendance. Don overhears an argument between Gene and a woman who had attended the lecture, and then a conversation where Gene invites another woman out to coffee that night. In another attempt to talk, Don arrives at Gene and Claudia’s house at 7:30 am. Before he can bring up his new project, Claudia asks Don if the symptoms of Asperger’s discussed at the lecture remind him of anyone, and Don says he instantly thought of Laszlo Hevesi, a professor in the physics department. Because of how distracted his friends are as they prepare their children Eugenie and Carl for school, Don arranges to come for dinner on Saturday night. 

The next day, Don meets with the dean to discuss the academic dishonesty of one of Don’s graduate students, Kevin Yu. Don has caught Kevin plagiarizing his assignments for a second time, and he wants the student to be expelled. The dean explains the case is not so clear-cut, as an initial instance of plagiarism (which Don did not know about) was a misunderstanding. Since English is not his first language, Kevin uses a tutor to assist him with his papers; his tutor had previously taken Don’s class, which is why Don noticed that Kevin’s paper contained a sentence the tutor had written in an old assignment. The dean points out that no other teacher would notice this, as they do not possess Don’s vigilant attention to detail, and encourages Don to find an alternative solution to the problem because Kevin is in his final semester. Don is left angry and confused because the Dean seems more preoccupied with perception and image than with upholding academic standards. Based on this, Don decides his questionnaire will ruthlessly eliminate any women who care about keeping up appearances.

At dinner on Saturday, Don shares a draft of his questionnaire, which is 16 double-sided pages, with Claudia and Gene. They review the questions, and both encourage him to broaden his requirements because he is being too picky. Gene even points out that some of the questions are ones Don himself would fail. Don agrees to make some amendments, as he appreciate their feedback on important nuance in word choice. He tells them that his plan is to join dating sites and provide a link to his questionnaire before engaging with any interested parties. Claudia and Gene convince him that he should also make use of traditional dating because it will help him improve his social skills. So, he joins a face-to-face dinner date service and is set up on a date with three other men and four women. 

During the group date, Don efficiently eliminates all four women present, despite the fact that he likes one of them—Olivia—and easily carries on an interesting conversation with her through the entire dinner. What knocks her out of the running is the fact that she is a vegetarian (as a result of being Hindu). On his way home, Don congratulates himself on his efficient use of the questionnaire, which saved him time and effort by eliminating all unsuitable candidates.