Inciting Event: The stillbirth of the couple’s child six months ago. Key Event: Announcement that the power will go out for an hour every evening for the next five nights.
First Plot Point: Shoba initiates a game where they have to tell each other something they’ve never told the other before, every night of the power failure.
Midpoint: First night of the outage, they recall falling in love and knowing he was going to marry her. Second night, Shoba comes home early, and Shukumar feels a sense of hope instead of despair.
Second Pinch Point: On the second night, Shoba reveals a time when she lied to him; he reveals cheating on exam. They lay bare their ugly truths.
Third Plot Point: Their game comes to a sudden end because the power is restored one day early. Shoba tells him she’s moving out.
Climax: Hurt, Shukumar reacts by telling her the gender of their baby, which she had never wanted to know.
Resolution: “They wept together, for the things they now knew.”
Comments: This short story was originally published in Jhumpa Lahiri’s collection The Interpreter of Maladies (1999).
(Submitted by Portia Tang.)