The doctor at the sanitarium convinces Nick to write a novel about his experience. He continues the story by writing about the Valley of Ashes, a desolate part of New York featuring a billboard with two eyes watching over everybody. Nick and Tom are headed to the Yale Club when they get off the commuter train and head to a car repair garage run by George Wilson. Tom chats with him over business matters, and George's wife Myrtle comes downstairs. It becomes obvious that she is Tom's mistress. She mentions her sister is coming to New York and wants to introduce her to Nick

Later, at an apartment, while Tom and Myrtle are going at it in the bedroom, her sister Catherine comes in with two other friends. They begin to have a party, and Nick remarks that this is only the second time he's ever been drunk. At night, he watches from the window and looks upon the people in the town, saying he finds himself within and without the world he is in. Myrtle comes out of the bedroom shouting Daisy's name, enraging Tom and causing him to smack her across the face.

Nick wakes up in his home and says he has no memory of how he got back. He opens front door to find an invitation to a party at Gatsby's, saying he was the only one who has ever gotten a direct invitation, as all the other wealthy people in New York just come to his mansion and indulge themselves. He goes to the party, which is extravagant, and asks around for Gatsby, but nobody has seen him. He runs into Jordan, who is also curious to find him. They hear rumors such as Gatsby being a German spy or an assassin. Eventually, Nick happens to encounter the man himself, Jay Gatsby. Nick tells Jordan that he imagined Gatsby to be older and fatter. A man comes by and tells Jordan that Gatsby wishes to speak with her in private. A while later, as the party comes to an end, she comes out telling Nick that she just heard something very shocking. Before she can say anything else, she is pulled away by a snobby rich man.

CONTINUED....