Jean Louise returns home, still pained by her changed relationship with Calpurnia, only to discover her Aunt Alexandra horrified that Jean Louise has visited the woman who raised her. Aunt Alexandra expounds upon the vague dangers presented by the African American population, using a racial slur that Jean Louise has never heard from a member of her family. She expresses that she would be less shocked to be violently attacked by her aunt than she is to hear her use such a word.

Jean Louise does not have time to recover from this turn of events before Aunt Alexandra hosts a coffee gathering with the local women. Jean Louise feels immensely out of place with all of them and confused as to how they can believe the things they do having grown up in the same town and with many of the same experiences as her. She mentally compares Maycomb to New York, imagining defending her family and upbringing to the city she now resides in. Ultimately, she decides that it is much more likely that she has missed the obvious build-up to these events and opinions in the lives of her loved ones than that they have all changed at the same time.