Reverend Buckminster is gravely wounded and unconscious after his fall from the cliffs. Turner attends a deacons’ meeting as his father’s representative and learns that the church wants to dismiss his father as pastor because of his lack of support for the Malaga eviction. The deacons agree to remove Reverend Buckminster from his position, and Turner and his mother begin moving the family’s belongings to Mrs. Cobb’s house, since the parsonage they currently live in belongs to the church.

In his spare time, Turner walks along the beach and sometimes meets Willis, with whom he has formed a tentative friendship. Willis tells Turner that the human remains buried in Malaga’s cemetery were exhumed by the town’s developers and taken to the hospital where the residents now live. Turner’s father dies from his wounds, which devastates Turner and crushes his hope that his father will help him get Lizzie out of the hospital.

As time goes on, Turner befriends a local named Mr. Newton, who supported Reverend Buckminster’s views about the Malaga eviction. Turner does chores for Mr. Newton, who offers to take him to the hospital and try and get Lizzie out. However, when they arrive, Turner learns that Lizzie died 10 days after she was taken to the hospital.