Jack and Leah fly to South Carolina. In preparation for their trip, Jack tells Leah many details about their family that he has never told her before.

In South Carolina, Jack and Leah rent a house on the Isle of Orion. Lucy takes them walking on the beach, her favorite place in the world. She begins teaching Leah about the beach’s ecosystem, a process that will continue until Lucy’s death.

Leah and Jack visit Shyla’s grave. Leah asks Jack to tell a story about her mother that will make her “seem real” (369). Jack recounts a time when Shyla brought home an unhoused woman whom she found unconscious in an alley.

Leah meets Ruth and George, her maternal grandparents, for the first time. George and Jack silently agree to set their hatred aside for Leah’s sake.

Jack and Ledare begin working on Mike’s TV script in earnest, conducting research and writing. Jack decides that he and Leah will stay in South Carolina until his mother passes away.

One night, Jack and Leah are visiting Lucy and Dr. Pitts when Jack’s father Johnson Hagood arrives drunk and uninvited. He’s desperate to speak with Lucy, but when Jack holds him off, Johnson Hagood says cruel things about Lucy and about Shyla.