The chapter’s introductory italicized section focuses on the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the East Coast of America, particularly New York City.

In January 2001, Ursula has her baby, a girl named Bess. Ursula still isn’t sure whether her daughter is Jake’s or her coworker Anders’s (she had an affair with Anders while they worked on the Texas case in Chapter 7). When she told Anders she was pregnant, he abruptly refused to take any responsibility for the child, even if it was his, and moved to New York with an attractive colleague of theirs. Ursula enjoys motherhood but continues to work at a frenetic pace. Bess resembles Ursula and Jake enough that Ursula never tells Jake about her doubt about the paternity. Jake loves Bess as well and has just started a new job at a cystic fibrosis research organization, the mission of which resonates with him because of Jessica’s death from the disease. He travels frequently for work, as does Ursula. Mallory and Jake’s Nantucket weekend happens but isn’t related in the story.

Bess is sick on the morning of September 11, and Ursula takes her to the doctor’s. The office is in chaos because everyone is following the terrorist attacks in real-time.