Dan Shaper has just obtained a divorce from his wife of ten years, but he has yet to discover how to love his two daughters, Cynthia and Paula, without also loving their mother. His ex-wife is a demanding woman who hates herself for her own insecurities and hates Dan because he fails to live up to her ideal of the romantic lover. In the last years of their marriage, she found herself blaming him for their inability to have a son. He is now visiting the house that was once his home - Paula has gotten up early to be there when he arrives. Cynthia wakes up soon; as the girls play with their father, they raise questions about the divorce, asking him why he doesn't love their mother any more. Dan explains that he doesn't love their mother anymore, but he still likes her, and that both parents love and like their daughters very much. When he leaves, Paula shouts that she's sick of hearing the words 'love' and 'like.' Dan goes back to see Sally, his girlfriend. He is conflicted about his lingering feelings for his wife and his remorse that they didn't make it, and he relies on her emotionally to help him recover. As the days pass, his wife sheds the act of 'young, happy divorcee' and shows how hateful she has become - she uses clipped psychological terms to describe what went wrong in their marriage and presents several bills to Dan that are well beyond his means. She wants to enrol Paula in a special school and have her dental bills taken care of, which Dan finds difficult. As a last-ditch attempt to get his wife to behave civilly, Dan shows up with their mutual friend, Peter, whose presence forces them to be formal. As they are about to leave, however, his wife runs down to the car and gives him the bill for the school they had previously agreed not to send Paula too. She rages about how she hates him, how he could never satisfy her sexually, and how she has found a new man now. She states that he does not need to come see the children, but then rebukes him for being a terrible father. Dan goes to Sally, knowing that he only wants the 'pity' of sex from her, hoping that he can figure out what to do with the children.