Content Warning: This section mentions sexual abuse, death by suicide, and miscarriage.

Speaking in first person, Nina Simmonds reflects on her relationship with her mother, Maggie Simmonds, though neither is identified by name. Nina reveals that she no longer cares about Maggie and regrets the opportunities she missed due to Maggie’s actions. Nina wishes that Maggie were dead.

In Northampton, England, during the late 2010s, 68-year-old Maggie surveys the surrounding neighborhood through an upper window in the house where her 38-year-old daughter Nina has kept her in captivity for two years. Maggie watches as a neighbor, Barbara, helps her elderly mother, Elsie, into a car. Before her captivity, Maggie was good friends with Elsie. Maggie also observes a house with a garden that is neglected by the students who moved in after the death of their grandfather, Mr. Steadman; his death went unnoticed for weeks by everyone but Maggie. She also watches as another neighbor, Louise, who is again pregnant after a miscarriage, returns home.

Returning home, Nina invites Maggie to join her for dinner, as is their custom on Tuesday nights. Maggie pretends to like Nina’s choice of dish.