Chap­ter 5 intro­duces Frank Sza­tows­ki, a man who has spent most of his life in the small town of Strouds­burg, Penn­syl­va­nia, with only a brief inter­rup­tion for his ser­vice in the U.S. Army. Now, Frank is on his way to Boston to vis­it his daugh­ter, Mag­gie, who lives in a lux­u­ri­ous high-rise apart­ment with her fiancé, Aidan Gard­ner, a young man who seems to come from a wealthy back­ground. As Frank dri­ves toward Boston, he reflects on the sim­plic­i­ty and charm of his home­town, known for its out­door activ­i­ties and sea­son­al fes­ti­vals. The con­trast between the qui­et, rus­tic life he’s known and the grandeur of Boston, with its urban land­scape, is strik­ing. He is both excit­ed and appre­hen­sive about see­ing Mag­gie in her new life, far removed from the famil­iar world he’s always known.

As he nears his des­ti­na­tion, Frank stops at a Super 8 motel in Worces­ter, seek­ing an afford­able place to rest for the night. He buys flow­ers and cook­ies for Mag­gie, a small but thought­ful ges­ture that reflects his desire to sup­port her as she embarks on this new chap­ter of her life. Upon his arrival in Boston, Frank is greet­ed by a tow­er­ing struc­ture called Bea­con Plaza, which sur­pris­es him with its cor­po­rate atmos­phere rather than a res­i­den­tial one. He’s met by Olivia, a recep­tion­ist who impress­es him by know­ing his name—thanks to Maggie’s pri­or arrange­ments. This sim­ple inter­ac­tion reveals the extent of Maggie’s suc­cess in her new life, which is more pol­ished and sophis­ti­cat­ed than Frank had imag­ined.

When Frank final­ly enters the build­ing, he’s whisked up in an ele­va­tor with­out but­tons, fur­ther deep­en­ing his sense of dis­ori­en­ta­tion. Upon arriv­ing at Maggie’s apart­ment, Frank is tak­en aback by its opu­lence and the sweep­ing city views. Mag­gie, look­ing radi­ant and con­tent, greets him warm­ly, hav­ing moved in with Aidan after their engage­ment. She is dressed styl­ish­ly, hold­ing a glass of wine, embody­ing the life she’s now liv­ing. The sight of his daugh­ter, so trans­formed in both appear­ance and lifestyle, over­whelms Frank with a flood of nos­tal­gia. He is remind­ed of the sim­pler times they once shared, play­ing games togeth­er, and the bond that had once been so strong.

Mag­gie intro­duces Frank to Aidan’s art­work, a series of strik­ing por­traits that reflect Aidan’s artis­tic vision. Soon after, Aidan arrives, exud­ing charm despite the vis­i­ble signs of a recent mug­ging. He speaks about the inci­dent with an almost casu­al demeanor, recount­ing the har­row­ing expe­ri­ence with­out hes­i­ta­tion. The con­ver­sa­tion shifts to Aidan’s career as an artist, with his paint­ings being inspired by the char­ac­ters he encoun­ters in Boston. As a pri­vate chef pre­pares din­ner, Frank takes a moment to absorb the breath­tak­ing view from the apart­ment, real­iz­ing the wealth Mag­gie has entered through her rela­tion­ship with Aidan. He is both amazed and some­what dis­con­cert­ed by the life she has embraced, which feels so far removed from the one she left behind in Strouds­burg.

As the evening pro­gress­es, the dis­cus­sion turns to the wed­ding, and Mag­gie reas­sures Frank that there are no lin­ger­ing ten­sions from the past. She is focused on the future, eager to move for­ward with Aidan, and hopes to put any past mis­un­der­stand­ings behind them. Frank, how­ev­er, strug­gles with a mix­ture of grat­i­tude and appre­hen­sion, uncer­tain of the life his daugh­ter has cho­sen but want­i­ng to sup­port her all the same. The chap­ter cap­tures a beau­ti­ful moment of reunion between father and daugh­ter, bal­anc­ing humor with poignant reflec­tions on fam­i­ly, change, and the com­plex­i­ties of life. This chap­ter lays the ground­work for the emo­tion­al jour­ney that lies ahead, filled with ques­tions about fam­i­ly dynam­ics and the future of Mag­gie and Aidan’s rela­tion­ship.