After leaving Gravesend Academy, John takes a job with his uncle’s lumber company and lives with his family in Sawyer Depot. Owen moves into Hester’s apartment near Durham and works for his father’s granite company.

Adult John is invited to a colleague’s summer home on an island in Georgia Bay. Daily, he fights the urge to purchase a New York Times in order to follow American news; some days his urge wins. The lake reminds him of his days on Lovelace Lake with Noah and Simon in 1962. During that summer, John and Owen write letters to one another, and John admits that he misses Owen. In the fall of 1962, they enter the University of New Hampshire. The coursework is simple after Gravesend Academy and, for the first time, John excels. Owen becomes lax and makes only the minimum grades needed to maintain his scholarship. They befriend Hester’s friends but find themselves alone after they and Hester graduate. As the Cuban Missile crisis unfolds, Owen is certain it will end peacefully. In the summer of 1963, John works at the Meany granite company. He wants to join Owen in the quarry, but Owen insists John must begin in the monument shop.