The summary analyzes a passage from Alice Munro's story "The Boat" that describes the shared bedroom space of a girl and her brother Laird. It notes that the lack of clear boundaries between the siblings in the bedroom is manifesting in other areas of the girl's life, as she tries to develop her own identity but her and Laird's roles remain interchangeable. The passage also describes how the two sleep on "life rafts" on a square of worn carpet that defines their bedroom space, and that Munro illustrates the children's bedroom space carefully for the reader.