One day before her college graduation, Anne Lupoff is not ready to leave. While sitting in her dorm that evening, she decides to visit the professor, Russell Slater, who has mentored her for years, one last time. She manages to extract a promise from him to have lunch with her and her parents after the ceremony, and after some awkward conversation, she runs off to her dorm and forces herself asleep. Her parents worry her. They are immigrants and never attended college; as their only child, Anne has endured years of pressure to honor them by succeeding in a profession. She dreads experiencing their overstated pride the next day and, even worse, spending the entire summer with them. The next morning, Anne and her parents have breakfast together before, in front of thousands of people, she graduates with highest honors. Afterward, she, Russell, and his teaching fellow meet her parents for lunch. Anne adores her professor, despite his vaguely patronizing treatment of her, but she feels uncomfortably wedged between the two worlds of her family and college lives. As Russell and Anne carry her luggage and boxes down from her empty dorm room together, he gives her a small, leather-bound edition of Shakespeare's sonnets. Even if not in an untoward relationship in the strict sense, they at least teeter on the brink thereof. She and her parents leave Russell at the train station, and she tries to hide the tears in her eyes.