A young girl wakes up in the middle of the night in a bedroom she shares with her younger brother. She remembers the dream she was having: she found a secret epilogue to her favorite book, Swallows and Amazons, which described the characters’ later lives and deaths. The girl wanders through the basement apartment, her parents asleep in their own room, and notices how the moonlight makes familiar items in the house seem monstrous.
In the kitchen, all her mother’s things have been put away neatly, but in the lounge, her father’s trumpet case is open and his pages of writing, related to the degree he’s pursuing in his free hours after work, are out on his desk. The girl thinks about how her parents are complete, separate human beings. Suddenly, she gets an urge to upset the neat stillness of the house, so she pushes over several pieces of furniture in the lounge. She decides she’ll never tell her parents about what she did tonight.
The girl’s mother wakes up early and gets out of bed quietly so as not to wake her husband (the girl’s father). She reflects on how she’s come to resent this basement apartment, though they won’t be able to move into their own home until her husband completes his degree. She wanders through the apartment, wishing she were an artist instead of a housewife. When she sees the mess in the lounge, she first thinks that there’s an intruder in the home. But after finding the windows locked, she decides that her husband must have caused the chaos. Though this upsets her, she also feels gratified to have some evidence for what she has long suspected: that her husband is her enemy. She tidies the room and goes back to bed, resolving not to bring the incident up to her husband.
When everyone wakes up for the day, the mother fries bacon for the father’s breakfast. He embraces her and they share a kiss. The mother goes to find the girl, who is attempting to get ready for school while reading her favorite book from the beginning again. The mother takes the book away and tells the girl to hurry up.
