Meg wants to be the best housewife a woman can be, but sometimes her ambition gets the best of her. In the summer, she decides she wants to make currant jelly. Unfortunately, this turns out to be far more difficult than she expects. She works at it all day, but her pots of fruit refuse to set up into a proper jelly.

Since their wedding, Meg has often told John that he can invite a friend home to tea any time without first letting her know. John is proud of his wife for feeling that she can serve an extra person at a moment’s notice. As it happens, he takes advantage of her offer for the first time on the day she fails at jelly making. When he and his friend arrive, they do not find the clean home, cheerful wife, and waiting meal they expect. Instead they find a terrible mess with Meg in tears at the center of it.

When Meg finds out that John has brought a friend home, she gets angry and tells him he should never have done so. Upset and confused, John teases her about her failure at jelly making. She storms out, and John ends up feeding his friend cold food from the pantry. The friend does not mind, but John is angry at Meg for shouting at him and refusing to help him with his guest.

When Meg calms down, she still feels angry with John for teasing her—but she knows she behaved badly, too. Before she married, Marmee warned her that John has a different kind of anger than the March family has. The Marches get angry quickly, say things they do not mean, and forget their words afterward. According to Marmee, John is slower to get angry but also slower to forgive. Remembering this, Meg decides to apologize first. He immediately apologizes for making fun of her, and so their first quarrel ends quickly.

On another occasion, Meg spends too much money. She has always had a weakness for pretty things, and her wealthy friend Sally sometimes prods her to buy more than she can afford. Her little luxuries begin to add up, and before John finds out about them, she buys silk for a new dress at an exorbitant price of $50—far more than she should spend on a single piece of cloth.

When John finds out, Meg is ashamed—but she also admits that she dislikes being poor. The moment these words are out of her mouth, she is sorry she said them, but she cannot take them back. John begins working longer hours, leaving Meg at home alone in the evenings, and he cancels an order for a new winter coat he badly needs. In the end, Meg resolves this problem by admitting her mistake to Sally, who buys the silk as a favor. Meg then uses the money to buy John his winter coat. Afterward, all is forgiven.

At the end of Meg’s first year of marriage, she gives birth to twins, Margaret and John. The family celebrates the babies’ arrival and nicknames them Daisy and Demi.