The letter from medical school creates a division between Libertie and Cathy. They barely speak until the morning of Libertie’s departure, when Cathy makes her daughter promise to write to her. Libertie agrees and begins her first letter as soon as she arrives at Cunningham College in Ohio. Though Libertie resolves to put the memory of her mother behind her, everything in the college triggers her recollections. She stays with a friend of her mother named Franklin Grady who teaches law. Her first encounters with the family are awkward, and Libertie remembers a piece of gossip that her mother and Franklin had been romantically linked before Cathy met her late husband.

Libertie learns more about Franklin through his wife, Madeline. Madeline is illiterate but has no interest in learning to read. Her lack of curiosity confuses Libertie, while Franklin’s warmth toward his children saddens the girl who grew up without a father. The contrast between the busy, noisy Franklin house and Libertie’s quiet home makes her anxious, leaving her without the privacy she needs to write notes to the woman under the water. Gradually, she comes to appreciate Madeline’s warmth and good humor, which make her seem freer than anyone Libertie has known.