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With a fellow intern, Doreen, Esther ditches a magazine event in order to hang out with Lenny Shepard. As Doreen hooks up with Lenny, Esther heads back to their hotel and takes a long bath.
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An interpreter at the UN whom she met through Mrs. Willard, her boyfriend Buddy's mother. Esther thinks over how her feelings for Buddy have changed over their history together.
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She had started dating Buddy in college. At first, she admired him despite his disparaging attitude toward her literary aspirations. She quickly lost her admiration for him when she found out about his affair with a waitress over the past summer.
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She had visited Buddy at a sanatorium, after rejecting his proposal of marriage, she and Buddy had gone to a ski slope, where Buddy attempted to teach her to ski. Esther accelerated down a hill and broke her leg in two places.
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a photographer attempts to take Esther's portrait, but she breaks down in tears. Later, Esther attends a country club dance with Doreen, where she's attacked by her date, Marco.
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Her mother picks her up at the train station and announces that Esther hasn't made it into a summer writing program. Over the next couple of weeks, Esther quickly spirals downward into a deep depression.
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After a couple of visits, Dr. Gordon subjects Esther to electroshock therapy, which only worsens Esther's condition.
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She practices with a blade in front of her bathroom mirror. She visits her old hometown by the shore and contemplates drowning herself. She tries strangling herself at home but fails. She's invited to the beach by some friends, and swims out, but is unable to drown herself.
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She meets the sympathetic Dr. Nolan. Later, Esther is joined by Joan, an old high school friend who was inspired by the press coverage of Esther's attempted suicide to attempt suicide herself.
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with insulin shock therapy, and she's moved to a different residence within the institution.
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She decides to lose her virginity to him. After they have sex, Esther starts to bleed profusely. Her friend Joan helps her to the emergency room, where Esther recovers.
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It is now January where Buddy visits Esther at the institution, and she attends Joan's funeral. The novel ends as Esther enters her exit interview at the institution.
