Tender is the Night Book One, Chapter Two Summary

  • Mrs. McKisco says they thought Rosemary might be part of a "plot," and that they didn’t know who was in it and who wasn’t. Rosemary doesn’t understand, isn’t into these people, and wishes her mom were with her.
  • Mr. McKisco, a skinny, freckled, thirty-year old guy is irritated by the whole plot thing and starts talking to Rosemary. Then his wife starts up with the plot business again.
  • He yells at her, and she says he’s "nervous," which he denies.
  • He goes to the water, followed by his wife, and then by Rosemary, and they swim out to the raft.
  • The guy with the blond mane is on the raft and Rosemary finds his face extremely sad. She and Mrs. McKisco check him out as he swims away.
  • When Rosemary praises his swimming, Mrs. McKisco viciously says he’s a crappy musician. Mr. McKisco agrees, grumpily, that the guy, Abe North, is a bad musician.
  • Mrs. McKisco stops talking when they notice the pearl lady get in the water with two kids. Abe North puts one of the kids on his shoulders.
  • Rosemary asks if North is the pearl lady’s man, and Violet says no, that she’s Mrs. Diver, and that the Divers aren’t staying at the hotel.
  • Violet asks Rosemary if she’s been to Europe before, and Rosemary tells her that she was educated in Paris. Then Violet (Mrs. McKisco) says Albert (Mr. McKisco) is writing a novel and starts to explain what it’s about, but Albert tells her to stop mouthing off about it.
  • Rosemary heads back to the beach and chills in the sun, checking out the jockey cap guy who’s still entertaining the people under the umbrellas, giving off tons of excitement vibes.
  • She falls asleep and when she wakes only jockey cap guy is left on the beach, packing up the beach gear.
  • He tells her he was planning to wake her before he left, and she thanks him, realizing how sunburned she got.
  • She tries to make conversation, but he (Dick Diver) moves off to unload the beach stuff into a car.
  • When he comes back to get the last of the stuff, she asks the time and he tells her it’s about 1:30pm. Then he looks at her and she gets happily lost in his blue eyes. He leaves, and then so does she.