On the plane to New York, Franklin Roth struggles to write about Elizabeth Zott without betraying her. He has interviewed colleagues and even encountered Madeline, but Six-Thirty prevents any questioning. What stays with Roth is Elizabeth’s account of her life and aims.

Elizabeth describes Calvin Evans as her soulmate, their bond rooted in mutual respect for each other’s intellect. She reveals that Hastings director Dr. Donatti stole her research, prompting her resignation, and explains her mission to teach chemistry so women can see and defy false limits. She challenges religion’s absolution of responsibility and condemns exclusionary biases that hobble science.

Elizabeth discloses she lacked an undergraduate degree and left UCLA after assaults and enforced silence linked to Dr. Meyers. She recounts her brother John’s guidance and suicide, a father imprisoned for deadly “miracles,” and a mother who fled to Brazil. From Calvin’s diary she learned of his abuse in a Catholic boys’ home and his lasting grudge against his father. She accepts responsibility for the leash accident that led to Calvin’s death and laments cascading consequences, even as she notes giving Phil a heart attack without regret.

Determined not to expose her further, Roth decides to meet deadline while revealing nothing sensitive. He frames Supper at Six as a lesson in who people can become and pads the piece with science—abiogenesis and elephant metabolism. His editor demands dirt; Roth insists there is none.

Two months later, Life runs a cover story anyway, altering Roth’s description to call her attractive and padding it with salacious material: her father’s prison denouncement, Meyers’s belittling, Donatti’s demeaning nickname and dismissal, and Mrs. Mudford’s critique plus Madeline’s family tree. The tree implies an affair with Walter and depicts other sensational details, stoking rumors. The magazine sells out within a day.