In which a young tailor named Erik Valborg, recently roused to art and literature, shares his hopes and insecurities with Carol as they navigate the peculiar rhythms of small-town life, including a failed tennis tournament that reveals the social fissures beneath Gopher Prairie’s surface. Meanwhile, Carol wrestles with her own evolving self-image, caught between the stifling expectations of village decorum and a desire for a more spirited, urbane existence.