It is 1945, and Pete is a fourteen-year-old boy. His older sister Elizabeth is twenty-two. Pete's family comes from a long line of money, but when his grandfather loses a million dollars on the New Orleans Cotton Exchange, the family is forced to downsize and face the scrutiny of other well-to-do families. Pete's father becomes a lawyer and his mother becomes head of the garden club, where she keeps the family relevant and scopes out suitors for Elizabeth. Elizabeth is not interested in any of the suitors her mother finds for her. Elizabeth asks Pete to drive her downtown, to which he agrees. She tells her brother she is in love, and he drops her off at the Roosevelt so she can meet the lieutenant she has been seeing. Pete follows Elizabeth into the bar and watches her on her date. When they get home, his mother asks what movie he took Elizabeth to see, and he tells her he dropped his sister off on the corner. Elizabeth stays overnight one night with the lieutenant. She returns in the morning with news that their relationship is over as the lieutenant is going overseas. Elizabeth's mother invites one of the boys she approves of, Tydings, over that night, and the young suitor brings flowers for Elizabeth. They go on a few dates, and Elizabeth agrees to marry him. The mother is ecstatic since Tydings is of a certain class and gets along well with the family, and she starts to make wedding arrangements. Pete's father phones a friend to ask about Tydings's family and learns that his father is constantly hospitalized with epilepsy and his mother is in an institution. Tydings has asked any decent girl he could find in Houston to marry him. Pete's mother tells him to take the car to go get milk. When Pete returns, all he can wonder is why his father decided to take part in Elizabeth's affairs after years of disinterest in his children's lives.