- The Lisbons' neighbors try to show their compassion, but they're also so horrified by Cecilia's suicide that they avoid talking about it.
- Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon also refuse to discuss it, even with the priest, Father Moody.
- After the funeral, the mysterious "we" narrator gets very interested in the surviving Lisbon girls. They (it seems that the narrator represents a group of neighborhood boys) watch them and memorize every detail of their movements.
- Some neighborhood fathers get together and decide to remove the spiked fence that Cecilia had jumped onto, saying it's dangerous.
- They don't have the tools to do it, though, and have to pay a man to come and use a tow truck to pull it out of the ground.
- Like every June, the neighborhood is covered with the carcasses of fish flies, and everyone takes out their anxiety over the death on getting rid of the dead bugs.
- The boys clean their own houses, and then decide to go clean off the Lisbon house. Mr. Lisbon thanks them, and then goes inside.
- He finds a retainer belonging to Kyle Krieger, left at the party, and tries to flush it down the toilet. It won't go down, though.
- He sees Cecilia's ghost in her old bedroom, but it turns out that it was only his daughter Bonnie, wrapped in a bed sheet.
- The psychologist, Dr. Hornicker, asks Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon to come in, but they won't. For the rest of the summer the family's mostly reclusive.
- When school starts again, the remaining four girls go to school like nothing even happened. Mr. Lisbon goes back to teaching math at the school.
- Boys try to talk to the Lisbon sisters, but they keep to themselves and won't talk back.
- Except, that is, for Lux, who secretly hooks up with many, many boys at school.
- Trip Fontaine, the BMOC, falls madly in love with Lux. He's got girls falling all over him, but he gets fixated on her.
- Since he's never had to ask a girl out (they just come to him), Trip doesn't know how to go about wooing Lux.
- Trip waits for Lux outside an assembly and follows her in. Their arms touch on the armrest and, when the assembly is over, he tells her she's a stone fox. That's right.
- He tells Lux that he's going to go to her house (bold move), and he does. He sits and watches TV with her parents there, never getting to make a move.
- When he leaves, though, he gets into his car and suddenly Lux appears, on top of him, and they make out like crazy for three minutes. She leaves to get back before her parents miss her.
- Lux is grounded and Trip isn't allowed to visit anymore.
- The Lisbons never go anywhere except for school and church.
- Autumn comes and the leaves fall. The Lisbons are the only family on the street that doesn't rake their leaves.
- A reporter named Linda Perl comes to the house to talk to the family, and then writes a story about the teen suicide epidemic.
- The girls become more and more closed off at school, sticking to themselves.
- Mrs. Woodhouse, the school headmaster's wife, decides to hold a "Day of Grieving" to let everyone process the suicide. It's a little awkward, though, and no one mentions suicide or Cecilia, so it's pretty meaningless. Empty gesture, etc.
- The sisters start visiting the school therapist, Miss Kilsem, and they seem happier.
- Trip Fontaine visits Mr. Lisbon during his planning period and tells him that he wants to take Lux to the Homecoming dance.
- Mr. Lisbon says that Mrs. Lisbon won't let him. Trip offers to find three friends to take the other three girls so that it will be a group rather than a date.
- Mr. Lisbon promises to do what he can.
- Trip chooses his team carefully and ends up with Parkie Denton, whose dad has a Cadillac, Kevin Head, who promises to help Trip tune up his car, and Joe Hill Conley, because his smarts will impress Mr. and Mrs. Lisbon.
- The boys show up at the Lisbon house, and Mrs. Lisbon questions them on their driving abilities before the girls come downstairs to meet their dates.
- Only Trip and Lux are a real couple, while the others girls just sort of divvy up randomly between the remaining boys.
- The girls are ecstatic at being out of the house. They boys are floored by how normal they seem—chatty and seeming happy.
- Therese tells the boys that Cecilia was weird, but that they just want to live, if anyone (i.e., their parents) would just let them.
- They make it to the dance, and Lux smokes a cigarette before going in. They finally establish couples: Bonnie and Joe Hill Conley; Lux and Trip; Therese and Kevin Head; Mary and Parkie Denton.
- The girls all go into the bathroom together to freshen up, and then hit the dance floor.
- Lux and Trip sneak off under the bleachers to make out, and Bonnie and Joe Hill Conley follow them.
- They drink peach schnapps and kiss, and then return to the dance floor. Trip and Lux are crowned homecoming queen and king.
- At ten-thirty, after the dance, the girls only have half an hour to make it home before their curfew. There's a slight problem, though: Trip and Lux are nowhere to be found.
- They go back home and Joe Hill Conley kisses Bonnie and Kevin Head kisses Therese. Mary gets out without any kisses.
- Two hours later Lux rides up in a taxi. Her mother opens the door, listening to church music while she waits for her rebellious daughter.
- Many years later Trip tells the narrators what happened that night. He and Lux had gone to the football field to have sex. In the middle of it Lux started crying and saying she always screws things up. He got turned off, walked home, and didn't care how she had made it home.
- The other boys drive around for the rest of the night, hoping for a sign from the girls.
- One of their bedroom lights comes on, and Parkie honks his horn at her just as the light goes out.