Dave Packer has sworn not to talk on the same day he must give an oral report about India. When Dave and his project partner, Lynsey Burgess, step to the front of the class, Dave begins coughing uncontrollably. The teacher, Mrs. Overby, tells him to go get some water and to give the report another time. Lynsey feels annoyed, but Dave successfully escapes having to talk. 

Chapter 2 begins chronologically before Chapter 1, when Dave and Lynsey are assigned to work together on a report on India. Dave and Lynsey don’t get along, so they split up the work and study separately. Dave, a good student, finds two books on India in the library and learns that the country’s most famous freedom fighter, Mahatma Gandhi, used words and ideas, not weapons, to liberate India from British rule. Gandhi also practiced complete silence one day each week as a “way to bring order to his mind” (8).

Inspired, Dave decides to remain silent all day on Monday. He quickly learns how to nod and smile when others talk, and he manages to get through the entire morning without talking. Soon, it’s time for lunch period.