Lucy tearfully tells Lily that Lucy is engaged to Alex and wants to move in with him before their lease ends. Lily reassures Lucy that Lily is not upset, then realizes Lucy may have exaggerated the drama to secure Lily’s approval. Once alone, Lily is surprised by how relieved and excited Lily feels about having the apartment to herself, especially because Lily imagines eventually having privacy with Ryle.

Lily notes that Ryle has not contacted Lily since their tentative agreement to try a relationship without sex or commitment. Instead of texting first, Lily turns to her old journal entries addressed to Ellen DeGeneres. In the entries, teenage Lily grows closer to Atlas, worries about the cold in the abandoned house where Atlas is staying, and reflects on how little Lily knows about Atlas’s past.

In one memory, Atlas helps Lily prepare Lily’s garden for winter. Their conversation about plants becomes a metaphor for people needing proper love to survive, and Atlas suggests that abandonment has left Atlas homeless and unable to do anything meaningful. Lily counters by pointing to a strong tree that grew alone, trying to show Atlas that Lily believes Atlas can survive. Their emotional closeness shifts into playful flirting when Atlas gets compost on Lily, leaving Lily increasingly aware of Lily’s feelings for him.

The journals then recount a violent incident at Lily’s home. Lily’s father becomes enraged when Lily’s mother parks in the garage during a snowstorm, and Lily finds Lily’s father choking Lily’s mother against the car. Lily attacks Lily’s father to stop him, but Lily is thrown off and injured badly enough to need nine stitches. Lily’s mother tells Lily to lie at the hospital and say Lily slipped on ice, making Lily realize Lily’s mother still will not leave Lily’s father.

Afterward, Atlas notices Lily’s injury and reveals scars on Atlas’s arms, implying that Atlas has also survived abuse. Lily later brings blankets to Atlas and discovers the abandoned house has no furniture, no heat, and a hole in the roof letting in snow. Horrified, Lily insists Atlas sleep on Lily’s bedroom floor, then learns Atlas was kicked out by Atlas’s mother and stepfather after turning eighteen, lost the temporary shelter of a friend’s family, and is trying to survive until graduation and enlistment in the Marines.

Lily ends the journal entries overwhelmed by Atlas’s situation and angry at the lack of help available to people like him. Atlas’s homelessness forces Lily to rethink assumptions Lily once absorbed from Lily’s father about poverty and charity. Lily vows that as an adult Lily will help people rather than excuse selfishness and indifference.