Summary

Chapter 1

The first chapter of Part II of the novel begins with a short history of Lisa Sample. Much of this section focuses on the relationship of her parents, Peter and Irene, as context for how she became the woman she is in the central events of this novel. They met at a drive-in when Irene (then Irene Colton) was a waitress and Peter was passing through Tama, Iowa, on a business trip. The car-hop restaurant was cash-only, which Peter only realized after he had eaten that he could not use his credit card to pay. Realizing that Peter had no cash, Irene paid for the meal herself. Afterwards, Peter wrote the restaurant to thank her. The two struck up a correspondence which quickly evolved into a courtship.

Peter began to pass through Tama regularly after that in order to see...