Bill returns to Margo's side to comfort her. The next day, Addison's column sings Eve's praises and makes snide remarks about 'mature' actresses playing youthful roles. When Bill rejects her, Addison comes in and offers to help promote her career. After the show, Addison goes backstage and overhears Eve making a play for Bill in her dressing room. Eve goes on in Margo's role that night, with Addison and several other critics in attendance, all of them invited that afternoon. While Lloyd sets off to find help, Margo apologizes to Karen for her recent bad behavior and Karen looks guilt-stricken. At the end of a tense weekend, Lloyd and Karen are driving Margo to the train station when the car suddenly runs out of gas. Recalling that they are scheduled to spend the weekend in the country with Margo, Karen comes up with an idea to teach Margo a lesson, and places a call to Eve. Lloyd goes home and raves to Karen about Eve's performance, and comments that he longs to see Margo put in her place. When they are alone, Bill asks Margo to marry him, as he has many times before, and when she says no, he walks out. Margo argues bitterly with Lloyd and accuses Bill of rehearsing Eve on the sly. Addison tells her that Miss Casswell already read with Margo's new understudy, Eve, adding that Eve performed brilliantly.

On the day of Miss Casswell's audition, Margo shows up late and encounters Addison in the lobby of the theater. Meanwhile, Eve tells Karen that she would like to replace Margo's pregnant understudy, and Karen promises to speak to Max. She then asks Max to give Eve a job in his office. Max takes Margo aside and says he has foolishly agreed to audition Addison's date, the breath-taking Miss Casswell, and Margo promises to read with her. The tension between them escalates as the guests begin to arrive, and Margo gets drunk and grows maudlin. The night of the party, Margo and Bill quarrel about Eve, and he chides Margo for her jealousy and insecurity about her age. Their relationship becomes strained, however, when Eve arranges a homecoming birthday party for Bill without telling Margo. Eve quickly makes herself indispensable as Margo's assistant, to the displeasure of Margo's maid, retired vaudevillian Birdie Coonan. Eve accompanies Margo and Bill to the airport, and so endears herself to them that Margo moves Eve into her guestroom. Director Bill Sampson, Margo's younger boyfriend, comes to say goodbye before leaving for Hollywood to direct a film. Eve explains that her life changed when she happened to see Margo in a play in San Francisco, and when the production moved to New York, Eve followed. In Margo's dressing room, Eve describes her childhood in the Midwest and her marriage to Eddie, an Air Force radio technician who was killed in the war. Touched by the young woman's devotion to Margo, Karen brings her backstage. Karen recalls when Eve first entered their lives: On a rainy October night, Karen arrives at the theater where Margo is starring in Lloyd's play, and is approached by Eve, who has been to every performance.

At the Sarah Siddons Society's annual banquet, imperious theater critic Addison DeWitt, playwright Lloyd Richards and his wife Karen, producer Max Fabian and legendary actress Margo Channing watch as Eve Harrington is presented with the theater's most prestigious award.

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