Part 1: Chapters 1-2 Summary

Richard Yates is the author of multiple novels and short story collections, including Revolutionary Road. This novel is about sisters whose lives were irrevocably altered by the divorce of their parents.

In chapter one, Emily finds herself forced to explain divorce to the neighborhood children while living in Tenafly, New York. A short time before this, Emily and her sister visited the newspaper where their father worked writing headlines as a copy-desk man. At home, Emily and Sarah had to contend with a mother who was always trying to live above her means. Once Pookie, their mother, left them with a neighbor and Sarah was injured when she tried to run under an iron bar. Sarah would have a scar over and across one eye for the rest of her life.

In chapter two, Sarah taught Emily about sex...