The chap­ter opens with the nar­ra­tor, Theo, receiv­ing an invi­ta­tion from his ex-wife Hele­na to vis­it her and her new part­ner, Rupert, to see their cat Mathilda’s new­born kit­tens. Theo reflects on the soci­etal rit­u­als sur­round­ing the birth of domes­tic ani­mals, not­ing the bit­ter­sweet nature of such events due to strict reg­u­la­tions requir­ing ster­il­iza­tion or culling of most off­spring. This sets a tone of melan­choly and detach­ment, under­scored by Theo’s real­iza­tion that the date marks exact­ly one year since Hele­na left him for Rupert.

Theo’s vis­it to Hele­na and Rupert’s home prompts intro­spec­tion about their failed mar­riage. He cyn­i­cal­ly cri­tiques their new life togeth­er, imag­in­ing it as a facade of domes­tic bliss. His thoughts drift to their past inti­ma­cy, ques­tion­ing whether Hele­na dis­cuss­es their sex­u­al his­to­ry with Rupert. Theo admits to his own short­com­ings in their rela­tion­ship, acknowl­edg­ing that their mar­riage was built on super­fi­cial attractions—social sta­tus, aca­d­e­m­ic pre­tens­es, and phys­i­cal desire—rather than gen­uine love. The death of their child, Natal­ie, ulti­mate­ly exposed the empti­ness of their union.

The nar­ra­tive shifts to a broad­er com­men­tary on the decline of sex­u­al plea­sure and inti­ma­cy in a world where pro­cre­ation is no longer pos­si­ble. Theo observes that sex has become mechan­i­cal and unsat­is­fy­ing, devoid of its for­mer emo­tion­al and phys­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance. Women’s mag­a­zines lament painful orgasms, and rela­tion­ships are strained by unmet expec­ta­tions. Despite gov­ern­ment efforts to stim­u­late desire, the chap­ter paints a bleak pic­ture of human con­nec­tion, where love and mar­riage per­sist but lack depth and ful­fill­ment.

Theo’s vis­it con­cludes with a sub­dued inter­ac­tion at Helena’s home, where he meets Mathil­da and her kit­tens. The scene is tinged with nos­tal­gia and res­ig­na­tion, as Theo accepts the loss of his for­mer life. The chap­ter ends with a descrip­tion of the house, sym­bol­iz­ing Helena’s efforts to erase the past and cre­ate a new iden­ti­ty with Rupert. Theo’s detach­ment and bit­ter­ness linger, reflect­ing the broad­er themes of decay and dis­il­lu­sion­ment that per­me­ate the chap­ter.