The next day Esther trades Betsy her bathrobe for a skirt and blouse, and makes the trip home to New England. Her mother picks her up and immediately tells Esther that she did not get accepted into a writing program she'd applied to; Esther feels hopeless as she looks at spending the rest of the summer in her mother's house.
Over the next several weeks, Esther is able to do little and slides into depression. She continues to wear the blouse and skirt she bartered for with Betsy and refuses to bathe or wash her hair. She tries to write, but finds she is unable to read, write, or sleep. When she asks the family doctor for more sleeping pills, after having received a prescription the previous week, the doctor refers her to Dr. Gordon, a psychiatrist.
Esther dislikes Dr. Gordon, a young, successful man with what appears to be a perfect family. When she isn't cooperative with Dr. Gordon, he suggests to her mother that Esther would benefit from elctro-shock therapy. Esther undergoes one treatment, a harrowing, painful experience that leaves her terrified of the procedure. At this point, Esther's reasoning becomes more scattered and she becomes obsessed with suicide. After several unsuccessful or aborted attempts — slitting wrists, hanging, drowning — she wedges herself into the crawlspace of her house and takes dozens of sleeping pills. She is missing for several days and wakes up in a hospital. Later, she is moved to a state mental hospital.
With the financial help of novelist Philomena Guinea, who funds Esther's college scholarship and who was once herself committed to an asylum, Esther is moved to a private hospital that is much more comfortable and humane than the state hospital. Esther meets many of the patients, including Joan, another student from Esther's college and a one-time romantic interest of Buddy Willard. Esther also meets Dr. Nolan, a female psychiatrist who understands Esther far better than Dr. Gordon did. Dr. Nolan isn't scandalized when Esther admits that she hates her mother, and the doctor also limits all visitors to Esther — a gesture Esther is grateful for. Dr. Nolan is aware of Esther's terror of electro-shock treatments, and later when these treatments are administered to Esther, they are a much less harrowing experience, both physically and emotionally, because of Dr. Nolan's care.
