In bed with Leda, Daphne tries to separate memory from invention in Eddie's Whistler story. Daphne tells Leda that the supernatural parts may have been altered by trauma or retelling, but Daphne remains certain that the horse was real and that Whistler returned to save Mary Carter. Back home, Daphne talks briefly with Jonathan about sorting through his dead mother's house, then finally calls Abigail because Eddie's reappearance has made the past impossible to ignore.

Abigail reacts to news of Eddie with warmth rather than anger, which unsettles Daphne and pushes her to visit Winchester. Abigail avoids discussing Eddie in front of Lucas and lets Daphne drive them toward the old raspberry farm road. There, Abigail explains that in 1978 she was a divorced woman with two daughters and that Eddie's kindness, restraint, and loyalty made him seem like an answer to her life. Abigail says she knew, at least dimly, that Eddie was gay and connected to Skip, but she married Eddie anyway because she believed he could give up Skip and become part of the family she wanted.

Abigail then gives Daphne the explanation she has never had for the divorce. After the car accident, while Leda and Eddie were both hospitalized, Abigail returned to Eddie's room and found Skip with his head on Eddie's chest while Eddie held him. That sight confirmed that Eddie still loved Skip and that Abigail's bargain had failed, so Abigail wanted Eddie gone even though she also wanted him to love her. Daphne leaves with a more human, less simplified view of her mother, reflects on Buddy and on her own unhappy childhood, and thinks through the life she later built with Jonathan and his daughters.

Back in New York, Eddie asks Daphne to lunch at his office. He gives Daphne a framed photograph of Whistler, takes her to Café Luxembourg, and confirms that his connection to Skip never truly ended. Eddie describes the relationship as a lifelong habit as much as a romance, admits that secrecy shaped his life, says he loved Abigail in a different way, and asks Daphne why she never had children. Daphne answers that being a stepmother was enough and that she never wanted to risk inflicting an unhappy childhood on someone else. Before they part, Eddie tells Daphne that the Hotallings have invited them to brunch.

Jonathan returns early from Wisconsin, listens to everything, and insists on accompanying Daphne to Darien. At the Hotallings' elaborate brunch, Polly and Skip perform hospitality while Jonathan smoothly enters Skip's world through work talk. When Polly is finally alone with Daphne and Jonathan, Polly breaks down and reveals that she assumed Daphne's reappearance meant Eddie's leukemia had worsened. Jonathan uses his hospital knowledge to reassure Polly that Eddie's chronic lymphocytic leukemia is real but manageable. After brunch, the Fullers drive Eddie away from Darien, hear more about his condition, and bring him home to Bronxville. Eddie admires Candy's rabbit paintings, then grows visibly tired after the long day. Jonathan guides him toward resting in the guest room, and Eddie notices Jonathan's small painted horse and calls it Whistler.