Greenwich Park

Helen arrives at a prenatal class alone and feels awkward. Due to high blood pressure, her doctor has ordered early maternity leave. There’s a heat wave, which reminds Helen of a summer she spent at Cambridge with her now-husband, Daniel, her brother Rory, and Rory’s now-wife Serena, who is also pregnant. Daniel, Serena, and Rory were all supposed to attend the prenatal classes with Helen, but they all canceled. Daniel is too busy at work, and Serena claims she and Rory are going to a different prenatal class.

The teacher arrives and starts awkwardly talking about childbirth and breastfeeding. A woman comes in late, swearing loudly. She sits next to Helen, in the empty seat meant for Serena. During a break, everyone drinks juice, but the woman who came in late drinks wine and offers some to Helen. Helen refuses; she’s strict about following pregnancy rules. However, she chats with the woman, who asks why her friends (whose name tags are on the chairs) didn’t show up. The woman, Rachel, complains about how doctors are always changing the pregnancy rules and points out that people in previous generations used to drink while pregnant and that at least some of the babies must have survived, because the human race still exists.

Builders are remodeling Helen and Daniel’s house in Greenwich Park, a high-end neighborhood in London. It was once Helen’s parents’ house, and she and her siblings grew up there. Her parents died years ago in a car crash, and although she once thought the house was perfect, Daniel convinced her to make some changes. She’s uncomfortable because random men are always in her house, everything is covered in dust, and it’s noisy.

Daniel is an architect and works at the same firm as Helen’s brother Rory; it was once Helen’s and Rory’s father’s firm, and Rory took it over when he died. The firm is building a new luxury housing development, which is getting negative attention from the press, meaning Daniel has to work extra-hard lately. To make up for missing the prenatal class, Daniel offers to go shopping for baby things with Helen on the weekend. This is a big deal because they’ve had four miscarriages before, and buying baby things before the baby arrives feels risky to Daniel.

Today, Daniel’s at work, but Helen goes to the market to look at baby items. Helen still has a blue velvet dress her mom bought there once. At the market, Helen sits down and thinks about perusing Serena’s Instagram. Then, she spots Rachel reading a newspaper with a story about a high-profile rape case on the front page. Rachel claims she’s also on early maternity leave due to high blood pressure. Rachel gets them coffees, even though Helen doesn’t want to drink much caffeine during pregnancy due to health guidelines. Helen is confused by Rachel’s lackadaisical attitude regarding pregnancy rules.

At the clinic, Helen has an ultrasound, which makes her nervous because her previous miscarriages were discovered during ultrasounds. However, this time, everything is fine. The baby’s hand appears on the screen, and the ultrasound technician says the baby is waving. Daniel starts sobbing.

An unnamed man and woman meet in doorways, alleyways, and other dark places, apparently to have sex in secret.

Helen becomes increasingly annoyed with the remodeling noise and mess. At Helen’s next prenatal class, Daniel is again absent, and when Rachel asks about it, Helen starts crying. She thinks maybe Daniel doesn’t want to attend the classes because he’s grieving their pregnancy losses. For Helen, attending the classes is a helpful part of the grieving process, as well as for planning for the new baby. Helen is impressed with Rachel’s listening skills.

The class is awkward, but Rachel remains good-natured and humorous. Helen is pretty sure Rachel’s baby’s father is not around, and she doesn’t know how she’d be able to deal with the same situation. Although she thought Rachel was sketchy at first, now she’s grateful for her companionship and agrees to get a juice with her in the pub downstairs.

An unnamed man watches a woman take an envelope from her bag. He hopes that “it” is now over, but suspects it’s not.

Katie has been Helen’s friend since childhood and is her younger brother Charlie’s on-and-off girlfriend. Katie is a journalist and is sitting in a courtroom where the rape case Rachel was reading about is being heard. Two young, wealthy men, Tom and Simon, have raped a young woman, Emily Oliver, whose identity is kept secret in the newspapers, in Cambridge.

Katie spots Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Mark Carter, who is also in attendance. Katie has sent Carter repeated messages asking him to meet with her. He agrees to talk briefly. Due to social media backlash spearheaded by the rapists’ families, Emily has already had two new identities created and moved to new places. Katie gives Carter an envelope and asks him to pass it on to Emily. Katie wants to help Emily tell her own story instead of having the newspapers paint her in a negative light. Carter knows from experience that rape cases often don’t play out well because survivors are shamed and blamed for their own misfortune, and the wrong verdicts are reached by prejudiced and misogynistic juries. He’s not supposed to meet with Katie or give the envelope to Emily, but he reluctantly agrees on the condition that Katie doesn’t tell anyone about it.

Helen meets Rachel for a drink (juice for Helen, beer for Rachel). Helen has already been getting bored on maternity leave, organizing drawers and preparing meals to freeze for when the baby arrives. Helen’s friends from work don’t seem interested in her, and Katie is too busy. Helen has considered reaching out to her younger brother, Charlie, but Helen has little respect for Charlie because he lives in Hackney and works as a DJ, which Helen does not consider a real job. He has a daughter, Ruby, who was conceived on accident and whose mother he’s no longer with. Helen feels like he doesn’t deserve a child when she’s lost four.

Rachel smokes a cigarette while drinking her beer and claims she’ll quit soon. She wants to hear about Serena and Rory. Helen talks about the new development Rory and Daniel are building and the negative press it’s getting because of gentrification. Rachel asks if Rory is excited about his and Serena’s baby, which Helen thinks is weird. Rachel also asks about Serena’s photography career, which Helen doesn’t think she’s mentioned to Rachel before. Rachel says that she loved the father of her baby, but after she discovered she was pregnant, he revealed that he was already taken. Now they’re through, and he doesn’t know about her pregnancy. She met him at a music venue where she’d been a bartender.

Helen returns home and gets a call on her landline from someone wanting to discuss a refinance on her mortgage. Helen assumes it’s a scam call because to her knowledge, there is no refinance. She hangs up. She’s annoyed that Daniel is once again working late.

Serena and Rory host Helen and Daniel at their house for dinner. They’re sitting outside and Helen seems cold, so Serena goes in to get her a blanket. While inside, Serena also deletes the search history off her laptop so that Rory won’t see it. Rory and Serena also live in a fancy place in Greenwich Park. Since Helen inherited their parents’ house, Rory got their dad’s architecture company and Charlie got cash, most of which he’s apparently already spent. Helen jokes that Daniel only married her for her house. Serena suspects there is some truth to this.

Helen brings up Rachel twice; Serena thinks this is designed to get her to ask who Rachel is. She doesn’t. The men seem not to be paying attention to Helen. Helen brings up the last summer the four of them spent in Cambridge. One day, they took a punt boat from the college boathouse without signing it out, which was against the rules. They paddled around the lake and drank.

Serena apologizes for bailing on the prenatal classes. Helen says they’re not very enjoyable anyway and Daniel isn’t even attending them. Helen glares at Rory, as if she blames him for how busy Daniel is at work. Serena wishes she could drink wine, but she doesn’t want to in front of Helen.

Rory reminds Helen and Daniel to attend his upcoming birthday dinner, which Charlie will also attend. Rory, Serena, and Daniel saw Charlie recently because they brought an architecture client to the club where Charlie works. Helen seems upset about this because apparently, no one told her, plus she thinks Charlie is irresponsible. Last year, he got in trouble with the law due to drugs. The conversation turns to Katie, who’s back together with Charlie but busy covering the rape case. Helen says the case bears strong resemblance to one that happened when they were at Cambridge, but Daniel doesn’t want to talk about it.

Helen goes to the bathroom in Rory and Serena’s house and, as usual, snoops around. She admires Serena’s belongings and always wants to get the same things for herself. She drops a bottle of bath oil under the cabinet, and when she reaches to retrieve it, she finds a small red envelope with Rory’s initials on it. The note inside says “Darling RRH, Wear to show me, Evermore, W” (66). The handwriting does not resemble Serena’s, nor is “W” one of Serena’s initials, so Helen worries Rory is having an affair. She takes the note and goes back outside. Serena has a new necklace with a charm resembling a dog, which Helen admires.

Helen says she’s got a lunch date with Katie soon, and Daniel says Helen will have to skip seeing Rachel that day. Helen explains that Rachel is her new friend from prenatal class. Daniel hasn’t met her but doesn’t like what Helen’s told him about her; now, Helen regrets the things she said, because she likes Rachel. One time, Rachel came over while Daniel was at work and told Helen that gold is buried beneath the floorboards of many old houses in the area. They moved furniture around trying to find loose floorboards but didn’t discover anything. Daniel was annoyed at the misplaced furniture. At home, Helen can’t sleep because she’s worried about the note she found.