In the chap­ter “The Plus-One,” Han­nah wakes up with a painful hang­over, her head still fog­gy from the pre­vi­ous night’s fes­tiv­i­ties. As she reflects on the events, she becomes acute­ly aware of the grow­ing dis­tance between her­self and Char­lie, her part­ner. She can’t help but remem­ber the intense gaze of Will and the enig­mat­ic con­ver­sa­tion she had with Olivia, which stirs some­thing deep with­in her, push­ing her to ques­tion her sex­u­al desires and her rela­tion­ship dynam­ics. Seek­ing inti­ma­cy with Char­lie, she is met with indif­fer­ence, leav­ing her feel­ing reject­ed and turn­ing her thoughts toward the roman­tic ten­sions that seem to swirl around the island, par­tic­u­lar­ly between Will, Jules, and oth­ers. This real­iza­tion forces her to con­front the sub­tle under­cur­rents of unspo­ken emo­tions that have been build­ing since her arrival.

Despite her dis­com­fort and the feel­ing of estrange­ment from Char­lie, Han­nah is inex­plic­a­bly drawn to the intrigu­ing peo­ple she has met on the island. She decides to take a soli­tary walk ear­ly in the morn­ing, des­per­ate for a break from the sti­fling emo­tions she is grap­pling with. As she walks through the tran­quil yet eeri­ly qui­et land­scape, she explores the Fol­ly and sur­round­ing island, the ear­ly dawn cast­ing a peace­ful, almost haunt­ing atmos­phere. Dur­ing her walk, she encoun­ters Aoife, the effi­cient and cap­ti­vat­ing house­keep­er, who directs her to a safe route. Aoife’s kind­ness momen­tar­i­ly lifts her spir­its, but as she walks fur­ther, Han­nah feels a pang of guilt for hav­ing tem­porar­i­ly for­got­ten about her chil­dren amid the dis­trac­tions of the island and its enchant­i­ng set­ting. Her feel­ings of neglect and her yearn­ing for adven­ture become tan­gled, lead­ing her into a deep­er state of reflec­tion about what she tru­ly desires from life.

Hannah’s jour­ney takes her past the wed­ding mar­quee, and as she ven­tures clos­er to a grave­yard, her thoughts grow heav­ier, con­tem­plat­ing the fleet­ing nature of life. The sight of a child’s grave, marked by the harsh real­i­ty of a life lost to the sea, trig­gers a pro­found intro­spec­tion about mor­tal­i­ty and the tran­sient moments that define human exis­tence. As she stands there, lost in thought, her phone rings, pulling her back to reality—it’s her chil­dren, and their call ignites a deep, pri­mal love that momen­tar­i­ly dis­solves her feel­ings of detach­ment. This moment of con­nec­tion with her fam­i­ly con­trasts sharply with the grow­ing dis­il­lu­sion­ment she feels with her sur­round­ings and the com­plex rela­tion­ships around her. It’s a poignant reminder of what tru­ly mat­ters in her life, but it also under­scores the emo­tion­al con­flict she is fac­ing as she nav­i­gates the island’s mys­ter­ies.

The chap­ter takes a dra­mat­ic turn when Han­nah, while explor­ing the bog, begins to sink deep­er into the mire. What begins as a sim­ple walk, an escape from the emo­tion­al tur­moil she’s been expe­ri­enc­ing, quick­ly becomes a fight for sur­vival. The bog, dark and treach­er­ous, serves as a metaphor for her sink­ing rela­tion­ship and exis­ten­tial angst, trap­ping her in a phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al strug­gle. Her cries for help are swal­lowed by the wind, a reflec­tion of how her voice and emo­tions have gone unno­ticed for so long. Final­ly, Dun­can and Pete, two ush­ers, hear her des­per­ate cries and man­age to pull her out of the bog, sav­ing her from fur­ther per­il. How­ev­er, the res­cue does lit­tle to quell the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty that Han­nah now feels, both phys­i­cal­ly exposed and emo­tion­al­ly stripped bare. This har­row­ing expe­ri­ence leaves her more aware of her own fragili­ty and the ten­sion that sim­mers with­in her, mag­ni­fy­ing her grow­ing sense of iso­la­tion.

The chap­ter intri­cate­ly weaves togeth­er themes of love, loss, and the search for mean­ing amidst the com­plex­i­ties of human rela­tion­ships. The wed­ding week­end, meant to be a cel­e­bra­tion of love, becomes the back­drop for Hannah’s inter­nal journey—one that is fraught with emo­tion­al unrest, exis­ten­tial ques­tions, and the con­stant strug­gle to rec­on­cile her desires with the real­i­ty around her. Through her expe­ri­ences on the island, the read­er wit­ness­es Hannah’s con­fronta­tion with both her past and the uncer­tain future she faces, as the mys­tery of the wed­ding week­end inter­twines with her own per­son­al quest for mean­ing and con­nec­tion.