Chapter 1 (Daisy): Summary, Analysis, and Key Takeaways

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

The chapter opens in March 2019 with Daisy Shoemaker lying awake at two or three in the morning, unable to sleep. Her insomnia is a familiar companion, and she has tried every technique she has read about—visualizing worries as gifts, clouds, or leaves; progressive muscle relaxation; podcasts and Tibetan singing bowls—all while her husband Hal snores beside her. The immediate cause of her sleeplessness is a phone call from the dean of Emlen, the elite New Hampshire boarding school where their fourteen-year-old daughter Beatrice is a student. Beatrice has been caught spray-painting the word “RAPIST” across the dorm-room door of a male classmate named Colin, an act she carried out with members of the school’s feminist club, the Emlen Feminist Liberation.

Hal is furious. He insists they drive to New Hampshire Monday morning, and when Daisy gently asks whether they should hear Beatrice’s side of the story, he dismisses the question, pointing out that Beatrice was already on academic probation and that she has no right to act as judge and jury. Daisy calls Beatrice, who sounds surprisingly cheerful about the prospect of expulsion, telling her mother that at least now she can tell her father she tried boarding school and it wasn’t for her.

The chapter then moves into an extended flashback as Daisy lies awake cataloguing her worries. She thinks about her mother Judy, who has had two small “cerebral events” and now relies on her gentleman friend Arnold; about Lester, the family’s elderly beagle-basset mix with congestive heart failure; and about her marriage. Daisy recalls meeting Hal when she was twenty and he was almost thirty-three, a red flag her friends had chanted about. Hal had been honest about his past drinking, and Daisy had been drawn to his confidence, his looks, and his stability. They married six months later, and Daisy dropped out of college, planning to transfer but instead becoming a mother after their first anniversary. Now, at fifty, Hal is handsome and successful while Daisy, twelve years younger, feels short, dumpy, and inadequate. She wonders whether he is having an affair, and she misses her best friend Hannah, who died nine months earlier. Hal has also been moody and withdrawn since his old Emlen friend Brad (“Bubs”) died by suicide.

In the middle of the night, Daisy checks her email and discovers she has been receiving messages intended for another woman—another Diana, whose email address differs from Daisy’s by a single character. The other Diana’s life, full of invitations to tennis tournaments and birthday parties, seems far more glamorous than Daisy’s own. On impulse, Daisy replies to one of the misdirected emails, and the two women begin a correspondence. The other Diana is warm and funny, and when Daisy confesses her insomnia and her daughter’s troubles, Diana invites her to meet in New York for a Bloody Mary. Daisy says yes.

The chapter’s second half follows the Shoemakers’ drive to Emlen and their meeting with Dean Baptiste, a distinguished Black educator who has led the school for decades. Beatrice, dressed in her school kilt and sweater, defends her actions fiercely, explaining that her roommate Tricia had followed every procedure—telling her RA, her dorm leader, her advisor, and the counseling center—but nothing happened. Beatrice argues that Colin matters more to Emlen than Tricia does. The dean insists on due process and confidentiality, and Hal, playing the role of the lawyer, tries to smooth things over. Daisy, for once, speaks up, asking directly what happened between Tricia and Colin, but the dean deflects with institutional language.

In the end, the dean declares that Emlen is simply not the right fit for Beatrice and expels her. Daisy, sensing Hal’s fury, puts her hand on his arm and thanks the dean, then leads her family out of the office and home.

Key Events

The dean calls to report Beatrice’s spray-painting of “RAPIST” on a classmate’s door.
Hal insists on driving to New Hampshire immediately; Daisy calls Beatrice, who is cheerful about being expelled.
Daisy’s sleepless night triggers a long reflection on her marriage, her mother, her dog, and her unfulfilled life.
Flashback: Daisy meets Hal at twenty, marries him six months later, and drops out of college.
Hal’s friend Brad dies by suicide, deepening Hal’s moodiness.
Daisy discovers emails meant for another Diana and begins a correspondence with her.
The other Diana invites Daisy to meet in New York; Daisy accepts.
The Shoemakers meet with Dean Baptiste, who expels Beatrice despite Hal’s arguments.
Daisy asks directly what happened between Tricia and Colin; the dean refuses to answer.
Daisy leads her family out of the meeting and home.

Character Development

Daisy Shoemaker emerges as a woman caught between duty and desire. She is the family’s emotional caretaker—the one who calls her daughter, who tries to soothe her husband, who thanks the dean when Hal is too angry to speak. Yet her inner life is full of self-doubt: she feels inadequate next to Hal, guilty about her daughter, and haunted by the life she gave up when she dropped out of college. Her decision to email the other Diana is a small act of rebellion, a reach toward connection outside her marriage.

Beatrice is defiant and principled. She refuses to apologize for her actions, insisting that she was standing up for her roommate Tricia, who followed every procedure and was ignored. Beatrice’s willingness to be expelled rather than pretend she believes the system is fair shows a moral clarity that her parents lack—though it also reveals her youth and rigidity.

Hal is controlling and quick to anger. He dismisses Daisy’s questions, overrides her parenting instincts, and treats the meeting with the dean as a legal negotiation rather than a conversation about his daughter. His grief over Brad’s suicide is real but unprocessed, and he channels it into irritability.

Dean Baptiste is a study in institutional authority. He is polished, patient, and ultimately immovable, using the language of “due process” and “confidentiality” to avoid answering Daisy’s direct question about what Colin did.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Insomnia and anxiety: Daisy’s sleeplessness is both literal and metaphorical—she cannot rest because she cannot stop worrying, and her worries are the chapter’s organizing structure.
Marital power imbalance: Hal makes every major decision—where Beatrice goes to school, how to handle the expulsion, what to say to the dean—while Daisy is expected to smooth things over.
Institutional failure vs. vigilantism: Beatrice’s spray-painting is framed as a response to a system that ignored Tricia’s complaint. The chapter asks whether direct action is justified when institutions fail.
Mistaken identity and female connection: The email mix-up introduces the other Diana, a woman whose life seems more glamorous than Daisy’s. Their correspondence becomes a lifeline for Daisy, a space where she can be honest.
Grief and loss: Brad’s suicide and Hannah’s death both hang over the chapter, shaping Hal’s mood and Daisy’s loneliness.
Class privilege and legacy admissions: Emlen is a world of legacy students, alumni donations, and “right fit” language that masks the school’s power to exclude.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter establishes the novel’s central tensions: Daisy’s dissatisfaction with her marriage, her daughter’s moral outrage, and the mysterious correspondence with the other Diana that will presumably drive the plot forward. It also introduces the novel’s key question—what happens when women try to hold institutions accountable?—and sets up Daisy’s journey from passive observer to someone who might, for once, act on her own behalf. The meeting with the dean is a set piece that reveals the power dynamics of the Shoemaker family and the school alike.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Daisy feel “judged” by Beatrice’s expulsion, and what does this reveal about her character?

Daisy tells the other Diana that Beatrice’s expulsion left her feeling like she was the one found lacking. This reveals how deeply Daisy internalizes failure—she sees her daughter’s mistakes as her own, and she measures her worth by her family’s approval. It also shows how little agency she feels in her own life.

2. How does the chapter use the email mix-up to develop Daisy’s character?

The misdirected emails give Daisy a chance to speak honestly to a stranger in a way she cannot with her husband or daughter. Her confession that she is “enjoying living your life vicariously (in lieu of having my own)” is a rare moment of self-awareness, and her decision to accept Diana’s invitation is the first active choice she makes in the chapter.

3. What is the chapter’s argument about due process and institutional accountability?

The chapter presents both sides: Beatrice’s vigilante act is destructive and against the rules, but the dean’s insistence on confidentiality and due process means that Tricia’s complaint was never addressed. The chapter suggests that institutions can use procedure to protect themselves rather than students, and that sometimes the only voice a victim has is a loud one.