Adah notices a grey bird on her way to the bath and muses on how Africa is full of underappreciated wildlife. She asserts that her children will be different from the Nigerians she knew and from the English. She decides to get birth control pills, and forges Francis’s signature on the documentation for them. At the last minute, Adah decides to get a birth control cap instead.

Francis finds out about the cap and beats Adah. He calls in the other tenants in Mr. Noble’s house to tell them all what Adah did. Adah resolves that she needs to leave Francis. Francis fails his next exam, and he writes home to tell his parents that he failed because of Adah getting the birth control cap. Adah finds out that she is pregnant again.

Adah goes to their main doctor for advice on the pregnancy, and he gives her pills to take that will end it. Adah resolves not to tell Francis about the pregnancy at all. She starts a new job at the Chalk Farm Library where she meets Peggy, an Irish woman struggling with an affair with an Italian man. Their boss is Mr. Barking. Adah meets a coworker named Bill, who is Canadian and married to Eileen, another librarian.