In “The Plus-One” chap­ter, we find Han­nah wak­ing up with a hang­over, rem­i­nisc­ing about the pre­vi­ous night’s fes­tiv­i­ties and her increas­ing dis­con­nec­tion from Char­lie, her part­ner. She remem­bers the cap­ti­vat­ing gaze of Will and a secre­tive, allur­ing con­ver­sa­tion with Olivia, push­ing her to recon­sid­er her sex­u­al desires. Han­nah attempts to rekin­dle inti­ma­cy with a dis­in­ter­est­ed Char­lie, lead­ing to her feel­ing reject­ed and reflect­ing on oth­er pos­si­ble roman­tic ten­sions on the island, par­tic­u­lar­ly between Will, Jules, and oth­ers.

Feel­ing estranged from Char­lie and drawn towards the intrigu­ing peo­ple she’s met on the island, Han­nah decides to take a solo walk ear­ly in the morn­ing while wrestling with feel­ings of neglect and an urge for adven­ture. She explores the Fol­ly and the sur­round­ing island, notic­ing the peace­ful yet eerie ener­gy of dawn. Han­nah encoun­ters Aoife, the effi­cient and cap­ti­vat­ing house­keep­er, who gives her direc­tions for a safe walk. This dredges up Han­nah’s guilt for momen­tar­i­ly for­get­ting about her chil­dren amidst the island’s dis­trac­tions.

Her jour­ney takes her past the mar­quee, towards a grave­yard that pro­vokes deep intro­spec­tion about life, death, and the fleet­ing nature of exis­tence, marked by an encounter with the grave of a child lost to the sea. Her reflec­tion is pierced by a call to her chil­dren, reveal­ing a deep, pri­mal love that tran­scends her cur­rent dis­en­chant­ment.

The chap­ter cul­mi­nates in a har­row­ing expe­ri­ence in a bog, where what starts as an adven­tur­ous trek becomes a fight for sur­vival. Han­nah finds her­self sink­ing into the bog, a metaphor­i­cal rep­re­sen­ta­tion of her sink­ing rela­tion­ship and exis­ten­tial angst. Her screams for help go unno­ticed by the wind until two ush­ers, Dun­can and Pete, res­cue her, bring­ing her back to safe­ty but leav­ing her more vul­ner­a­ble and exposed than ever.

Through­out, the chap­ter weaves themes of love, loss, adven­ture, and the quest for mean­ing amidst the intri­ca­cies of human rela­tion­ships, set against the back­drop of a mys­te­ri­ous wed­ding week­end.