Amazing Grace Adams

Grace visits the doctor after weeks of feeling sick. She is shocked when the doctor suggests that she is pregnant. However, she realizes the doctor is right after calculating when she last had sex. Ben is the father.

Grace panics when she sees a little boy on a scooter racing toward the street and seizes him. His mother appears and rescues him. Grace regrets her outburst and, overwhelmed by memories, opens up old photos of her daughter in iCloud, though she knows looking at them will pain her. A concerned text from Cate interrupts Grace’s reverie.

Grace drives around town in search of Lotte after receiving another call from the school about Lotte’s unexplained absence. Grace is frantic about Lotte’s well-being.

At home that afternoon, Grace confronts Lotte about her whereabouts earlier. Lotte insists that her behavior does not affect Grace. Furious, Grace blames Lotte for making her feel like “a shit mother” and costing her her job (78). Lotte accuses Grace of leaving the family and refusing to talk about an unspecified crisis—later revealed to be Bea’s death. Grace hoped Lotte had forgotten about this.

The narrative shifts to Ben’s point of view. Five months after Ben and Grace’s date, Grace calls Ben. Ben is surprised and delighted to hear from her, but his mood changes when Grace reveals that she is pregnant and that he is the father. Grace tells him she can still have an abortion. Neither is sure what they should do.

Grace is upset when she arrives at the bakery and sees how small the Love Island cake is. She argues with the salesperson to no avail. She is even more upset by how expensive the cake is. She feels as if she has lost everything.

The narrative returns to Ben’s point of view. Cate contacts Ben shortly after he sends the divorce papers to Grace. Cate urges him to remember that he loves Grace and Lotte. Ben feels guilty but is unsure how to reach Grace. Cate urges him to try harder.

The point of view remains Ben’s as Grace and Ben meet at the Russian Tea Rooms. Ben is nervous about the meeting but starts to feel better when he sees Grace. The two chat about the food and the book Grace is reading. Finally, the two discuss the night they spent together.

Ben marvels at Grace when she speaks Russian with another woman. He is a polyglot too, but Russian isn’t one of his languages. He muses on his linguistic connection with Grace while studying an arrangement of matryoshka dolls on the tea room’s shelves.

After finishing her conversation with the Russian lady, Grace shows Ben the ultrasound photo. The image changes how Ben feels about the baby. He tells Grace that he sometimes watches her television show. The two share a moment of understanding. They agree to have the baby together.

Grace continues through town with the cake. Meanwhile, her mind replays all of the letters she has tried but failed to write to Lotte by way of apology. Walking over Suicide Bridge, Grace wonders how she has survived so much sorrow. Lotte’s voice appears in her head. Grace feels overcome by failure and discouragement.

Grace goes to Ben’s house after receiving the divorce papers. However, she does not bring the papers with her. This is the first time she has seen Ben’s new space, which is entirely white. She is surprised to feel a rush of tenderness when he opens the door. Although she is hurt, she remembers their first night together. The two begin to touch and kiss, but Grace interrupts the intimate moment because she feels overwhelmed and confused. The two sit down and talk. They agree that they have messed things up. However, Grace realizes that she still loves Ben when she leaves the apartment and walks to the train.

Grace and Ben visit the midwife when Lotte is almost two weeks late. Grace feels sick throughout the appointment. However, once the nausea passes, she realizes that despite the rapidity of her affair with Ben, she does not doubt her love for him.

At home afterward, Grace and Ben have sex to attempt inducing Grace’s labor. The sex has the desired effect and Grace goes into labor. Before the couple heads to the hospital, Ben gives Grace a matryoshka doll, the “symbol of family and fertility, mothers and daughters” (107). Grace opens doll after doll until she finds the smallest one at the center.

Grace traipses through the park, observing lovers on the benches and in the grass. She is hot and uncomfortable. She cannot stop thinking about Lotte’s safety and the events of the past few months. She finds a plastic water pistol and fills it in the pond. She then squirts herself with water to cool down. A little girl watches her. Grace addresses the girl in Japanese. She thinks about motherhood, her career, and her past. After the girl leaves, Grace bursts into tears.

Grace attends a presentation at Lotte’s school about upcoming exams. Grace scans the room throughout the assembly, desperate to identify the boy who has been commenting on Lotte’s posts and writing Lotte notes. Lotte disrupts the assembly by insisting the whole presentation is pointless. Afterward, Grace addresses Lotte’s teacher, Nate Karlsson. She apologizes to him for her daughter’s rudeness. Nate is younger than Grace, but Grace thinks he might be flirting with her.

After Lotte’s birth, Grace visits Ben’s childhood home and meets his mother, Helena. She and Ben plan to marry now that the baby has been born.

Grace is tired and edgy although the day is meant to be celebratory. Lotte still isn’t sleeping through the night. Grace therefore feels uncomfortable when Ben’s mother is unkind to her. Ben warned Grace about Helena’s toxic personality, but Grace is still surprised by Helena’s rudeness. Grace is even more surprised when Ben gets into a fight with Helena and insists that he and Grace are leaving. In the car afterward, Ben suggests that they elope. Grace agrees.