Anna wakes up in their new flat. She is happy that the family is together again.

Max and Anna begin having French lessons with a German woman called Mademoiselle Martel. Mama sends them to buy pencils before their first lesson. They manage to do so with the help of a French-English dictionary after a long and confusing interaction with the French paper store clerk. Max and Anna struggle in their French lessons, particularly in writing long stories in French using the dictionary. Max gets in trouble for using the same layout of long lists of food in his written pieces, which requires less work.

The family celebrates Christmas. Anna worries that it will feel different from their lavish Christmases in Berlin, but she finds that, even though there are fewer presents and the tree is small and modestly decorated, it is still a joyful time. Onkel Julius sends Anna a charm bracelet with charms of animals they used to see at the zoo. In a card, he conveys his best wishes to “Aunt Alice” (a pseudonym for Papa) and says that he should have heeded Aunt Alice’s advice, by which he means that he should have left Germany.