Five years pass before Nettie resumes her correspondence with a Christmas letter. Changes are coming. A rubber corporation begins work on a tarmac road that they are cutting through the jungle near the Olinka. Tashi’s father dies. Olivia and Adam are learning much of the life of the Olinka since neither Samuel nor Corine have decided to send them home for their education as missionaries usually do. Nettie learns more about the importance of friendship between women, especially co-wives, who support each other as they deal with the power their husbands have over them. The friendship between Nettie and Corrine has deteriorated, however, after Corrine tells Nettie not to visit alone with Samuel for fear the villagers will assume the two are having an affair.

Nettie’s next letter comes a year later. The Olinka are devastated when the roadbuilders inform them that the path of the tarmac road cuts right through their village. The village is destroyed. The chief goes to the coast for more information. When he returns, he tells them all of the Olinka land now belongs to an English rubber corporation. To stay on their ancestral land, the Olinka will be required to pay rent and a water use tax.