Gene, Patty, Bill, and Joan become close, and Joan wishes Patty could move in full-time. When Jamie is two, Joan and Bill host Thanksgiving with Bill’s extended family, including his siblings, children and their spouses. Juliet has recently gotten married, to a man named Paul. During these family gatherings, everyone drinks heavily and often gets into arguments. After dinner, Joan overhears Bill’s brother, Henry, and Martin (the husband of Bill’s sister, Bridget) gossiping about how she has secured her financial future by having a child with Bill. Joan is hurt to realize that Bill’s family primarily views her as financially manipulative. Later, Paul makes a racist remark to Joan, and she tells him to shut up.

The next day, Joan is surprised to find that Bill’s youngest sibling, Misty, has unexpectedly arrived for the Thanksgiving festivities. Misty is much younger than the other three siblings and is the eccentric, black sheep of the family. Misty has recently gotten breast implants, which causes much gossip and consternation in the family. After the other family members leave, Misty lingers for a few days. She and Joan go shopping, and Misty makes Joan uncomfortable by asking to charge expensive clothes to her credit card. Eventually, Misty confides that she is pregnant.

Misty explains that she is about four months pregnant and doesn’t know who the father is. Joan and Bill discuss their concerns about Misty’s ability to be a good parent, since she often seems to behave erratically. Misty leaves a few days later, but returns in four months, when she is approaching her due date. On her second visit, Misty asks Bill for money and is upset when he refuses. Later, when Joan is comforting Misty, the latter confides that she doesn’t want a baby.

Misty leaves and does not update Joan or Bill about the baby, although Joan calculates that she must have given birth. The rest of Misty and Bill’s siblings have been alienated by Misty’s attempts to draw them in to shady business deals. One day, Misty unexpectedly shows up at Bill and Joan’s house with her infant daughter, Leonie. Misty explains that she is living nearby and has a nanny to help her, which assuages some of Joan’s worries.

Shortly thereafter, Joan receives a phone call from Ashley (the woman who works as Misty’s nanny). Misty hasn’t come home and Ashley needs to leave. Joan brings Leonie home with her. A week later, Misty calls and explains that she has been unhappy trying to raise a child and doesn’t want to continue. Stunned, Joan is only able to say that she has begun calling the baby girl Lee.

After some resistance, Bill accepts that he and Joan will be raising Lee. They legally adopt her. Bill’s other two siblings, Henry and Bridget, seem to enjoy gossiping about this surprising turn of events. Joan becomes more and more attached to Lee, and Lee and Jamie also become comfortable with one another. Bill informs her that he has had a vasectomy and this news “didn’t hurt Joan’s feelings” (107). Bill’s children are facing some challenges: Juliet has withdrawn from her medical residency program and is getting divorced from Paul, while Theo lacks any career aims (he talks about becoming a ski instructor) and continues to depend on his parents for money. He is still dating Charlotte.

Time passes; Joan enjoys caring for Lee and Jamie, although she sometimes faces racist comments from individuals who assume that she must be their nanny. When the children are 5 and 7, Joan begins regularly visiting a local bookstore with them and strikes up a casual friendship with a woman named Trish who works there. Joan even points Trish out to Bill during one visit, commenting on how she finds the employee to be very beautiful. Later, Joan has an odd encounter where Trish becomes very emotional about the children and Joan realizes that Trish and Bill have been having an affair. She confronts Bill, who admits that he visited the bookstore alone after Joan had drawn his attention to Trish. He apologizes and tells Joan that the relationship is over.

Joan gets dressed up and leaves the house, hoping Bill will worry that she is going to seek out a partner and be unfaithful in revenge. Without a clear plan, she drives to the home of Dina and Trevor; Dina and Bill are old friends, and the two couples regularly socialize together. Once she has parked outside, Joan realizes that she does not actually want to confide in Dina (she knows that the latter will be loyal first and foremost to Bill). Unexpectedly, Trevor comes out of the house and sees Joan sitting in her car; he gets inside and she tells him about Bill’s infidelity. Trevor reassures Joan, telling her not to take it personally. Joan is surprised by the intimacy she feels during the brief but open conversation with Trevor, and she wonders if this is what Bill could have been seeking. Trevor gets out of the car, and Joan drives home.

Years pass and Bill continues to periodically be unfaithful. Joan considers divorce but reflects that there are many benefits to her marriage and her life. She concludes that “he’s not perfect. But neither am I. No one gets perfect” (123).

Lee and Jamie begin attending an expensive local private school. Joan volunteers at the school, working in the cafeteria. She sometimes also takes the children hiking after school. One day, she takes them to a clifftop trail in High Rock Park. Joan is startled to realize that the trail veers close to the edge of a high cliff, with a sheer drop below. She hurries the children back to safety and notices that the start of the trail initially had a gate (which would prevent people from casually following the trail and ending up on the cliff edge). She alerts a ranger and pleads with him to get the gate fixed, but Joan can tell that he is not taking her concerns seriously.

On the way home from the hike, Jamie admits that his school bag has been taken by another boy, who has been bullying him. Joan is irate when she tells Bill about both the broken gate and the bullying. Bill doesn’t seem to take her concerns seriously. The next day, Joan asks Lee to point out Greg (the boy who has been bullying Jamie). Lee also tells Joan that Greg sometimes makes racist remarks. A few days later, Joan watches from a distance as Greg grabs Jamie and shoves something into Jamie’s backpack. Jamie throws the item out, and Joan retrieves it. She is horrified to find that Greg has shoved a pornographic image featuring an Asian woman into Jamie’s bag.

Joan gets into her car and drives across the parking lot to where Greg is standing outside of his family’s car (an expensive Mercedes). Joan confronts Greg about bullying her son and then drives into the parked Mercedes while he stands next to it. Later, everyone assumes that Joan accidentally hit the car, and neither she nor Greg ever admits what really happened. Jamie never experiences bullying again.