A woman who seems lonely and distant starts making a "shopping list" as she lets her imagination run where it will. Mrs. Hollingsworth is one of those homemaker type women who doesn't quite seem to understand moderization and who has grown weary of things in her lives that symbolize her unhappiness.Consequently, her daughters find her in a "surreal fog," and the chapter entitled the same is the most amusing of the book.Mrs. Hollingsworth has become disillusioned and her "shopping list" is a list of the things she believes would make her life more authentic. There isn't any great plot in this book, though its quite esoteric.