

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.

To get back at her stepsister/love rival Joan Shaffer, Sylvia Salazar climbed into the bed of Joan's super-rich uncle Jeremy Shaffer and slept with him.Many people thought that Sylvia, her family's burden, had offended Mr. Shaffer, and he'd surely skin her alive. But actually, the overbearing business tycoon doted on Sylvia. When she was bullied, he even said, "I won't do justice—I'll only back Sylvia up!"