Rhea, newly released from prison, appears unannounced at a birthday gathering and immediately unsettles the guests. They whisper—"How did she get out so fast?"—and wonder if she's here for trouble. Rhea looks different and distant; conversation flips from disbelief to fear that she might "call it off," while someone snipes, "who else would marry an ex-con?" The one person who was kind to her, Jace, is absent and said to be home sick, leaving Rhea isolated and surrounded by suspicion. She is pressed with one blunt question: "What was prison like?"