Peter Flaherty, a fifty-three-year-old man, is with his wife Lily in Massachusetts during a blizzard, and their house's heat just broke the night before. Their thirteen-year-old daughter Delia has been away at a neighbor's house where there is heat, but she returns to their house shortly after the repairman leaves and it has been fixed. The couple officially adopted Delia about six months ago, although she has lived with them off and on for almost two years. As soon as she gets home, Delia takes the phone upstairs to make a call. She is still on the phone when it comes time for dinner, so Peter joins the call from downstairs — and interrupts a young man's voice — and asks her to come down to eat. At dinner, Delia tells her parents about the boy, Rob, who she says is sad and lonely and always talks too much on the phone. Lily and Peter are cautious not to pry too much into their daughter's life, but they always share with one another when they learn something new about Delia. Peter tells Lily that Delia has a diary and that she recently talked to him about her time in foster care. One day, Lily gets a call from someone at Delia's school who tells her that she is absent, and when Lily comes home she finds Delia and Rob half-dressed on the couch. Lily, unsure of what to do, tells the kids to go back to school and meets Peter in his office, where she bursts into tears. Peter comforts his wife, who is afraid that Delia will be taken away from them if she gets into trouble.