Chapter 1 opens with a dream Alison has where she traps herself in a basement while moving plywood. The only way out is through a window with a spider crawling on it. She then notices a door leading to a large brook with submerged steppingstones. With little hesitation, Alison jumps into the water and experiences “a sublime feeling of surrender” (3).

While driving, Alison worries about her mother’s reaction to Fun Home, a comic memoir about her father, Bruce, as it discusses subjects like his closeted bisexuality. She compares this anxiety to the feelings she had when preparing to tell her mother she was a lesbian, or when she waited six months before telling Helen she had gotten her first period. A near accident with a truck that mirrors her father’s apparent suicide quells Alison’s concern. Helen allows the memoir to be written but refuses to help and hopes it isn’t too angry.

Helen’s psychiatrist boyfriend, Bob, tells Alison that the water in her dream is favorable for creativity. While writing Are You My Mother?, Alison experiences a similar dream where she is afraid to dive into water in order to exit a cave.