

In her previous life, when Marlene's son falls ill, she calls her husband Wesley Hoffman for assistance, hoping he can contact their family doctor. However, Wesley claims that his best friend's son is also sick, and the doctor is attending to that child. As a result, their own son dies due to delayed medical treatment. When Marlene finds herself reborn to the time before her son's illness, her first action is to divorce that guy.

Bryce Davidson married into the Barber family and has never quite stood straight under the weight of it. On New Year's Day, his wife Ginny leaves to collect relatives and asks him to bathe their infant with a towel. Out of some small, stubborn impulse he fills the bathtub instead. The phone rings. He looks away. By the time he looks back, it is too late. In his collapse he hides what happened. He conceals the baby,covers the room, holds himself together through the Barber family's New Year visit. Every attempt by the relatives to see the child Bryce deflects. Ginny watches him, and something in the way he moves begins to pull at her. She can feel the shape of a closed door. She moves toward it.