The scene takes place at a national figure-skating competition. The coach is in the “kiss and cry” section reacting to her protegée’s performance.

The orchestra prelude details a sweeping skate dance routine that ends badly for the skater (she falls, tries to regain momentum, but falls again). The skater limps onto the stage (in her guard-covered figure skates and costume) and while they await the judges’ decision, bouquets and stuffed animals are tossed on stage. The coach gives harsh critique of the skater’s performance, full of sarcasm and verbal abuse. After a disastrous score, they review together the steps of the routine, set like a child’s nursery rhyme, the skater miming the choreography.

In a nostalgic autobiographical aria, “Queen of the Ice”, we learn the coach is a former figure-skating star. The skater rebels, showing wisdom beyond her years, asking for permission to walk away from the sport. After the coach leaves for the parking lot, the skater indulges at her own harsh words for the “has-been” coach. She announces with excitement that next week, she’s going away to study civil engineering at university – no more skating!

The twist at the end of the scene is the revelation that the coach is also the skater’s mother.

An orchestral “programmatic” prelude vividly portrays the skater’s disastrous skate routine before she enters, nursing a bruised buttock. An element of "cartoon" is invoked by the toy piano in the orchestra. The rhythmic accompanied recitative for the dialogue is very naturalistic, between set arias that are part of the exposition. Brownell rhymes off a “list aria” to detail the skate routine, which Chan sets as a child’s nursery rhyme. A “schmaltz waltz” is part of the coach’s nostalgic aria. The skater’s aria “We all fall down” is illustrated in the accompanying violin downward motif. This motif is turned into an upward movement as the skater announces her career change, giving positive reinforcement and optimism to the end of the scene.