Nathan returns after six years and is met by his boisterous family. Daisy, who has claustrophobia, is told to wait in the open while Nathan faces his mother, Mrs. Murillo, who laments thirty-eight generations of only boys and insists on a granddaughter. Nathan insists he is unmarried and uninterested, but the family keeps pressing him. At a public gathering a mixed‑race little girl sings to help her mother and charms the crowd. Mrs. Murillo spots the child's features and cries, "Come and look at your daughter!" Nathan is stunned and must answer the sudden claim.