In 1997, Isabelle, going exclusively by the name “Joan,” continues to walk the trail. Peter’s brother, David, joins their group and begins flirting with Jen. Isabelle’s sneaker is falling apart, and she worries she’ll have to stop in the next city to find work and buy a new pair. However, Peter then returns, pulling a brand-new pair of blue-and-gray hiking boots from his pack.

In Logroño, Reina reviews photos from her father’s pilgrimage. One shows a young woman with Reina’s exact same copper hair and green eyes modeling new blue hiking boots. The photo log identifies her as “Joan,” and Reina concludes Joan must be her mother—yet is baffled, since everything she knew pointed to her mother being named Isabelle and from Portugal, not France. Another photo shows her father, uncle, Jen, Joe, and Isabelle together, while a later one shows her father with his arm in a blue cast.

Feeling disconnected from her life in New York, Reina forgets to call her boyfriend, John. At the albergue, she is placed in an annex with Matt and his friends, including Nicole, an immaculate hiker. Reina discovers Matt has sabotaged her by removing the Wi-Fi password, preventing her from filing her weekly story on time. Matt and Nicole mock her, with Nicole loudly asking “Matteo” about the story he has been researching for months, implying that Reina is just an opportunistic latecomer.

Isabelle and her friends arrive in Logroño during a festival. She and Peter have grown inseparable over the past two days, though they have not yet kissed. Isabelle knows their relationship can’t last, as she must go into hiding. To conceal her lack of money for the albergue, she tells her friends she is going to a church. The hosteler allows her to check in without payment but offers her a job cleaning the bathrooms in the morning. Isabelle accepts the work, realizing she must stay in Logroño to earn money, which means saying goodbye to her friends and Peter.

On her rest day in Logroño, Reina feels a sense of peace despite having missed her deadline because of Matt’s sabotage. The Wi-Fi sign is back, but it is too late. While relaxing at a café, she strategizes how to win the assignment. She concludes she has two advantages over Matt. First, her experience is more relatable; she is connecting with a diverse group of pilgrims who have deep reasons for walking, while Matt’s group treats the journey like a party. Second, her story is deeply personal, as she is uncovering her parents’ love story by following in their footsteps. Inspired by a beautiful passage from her father’s journal about finding a moment of perfect happiness in Logroño, Reina resolves to write with the same emotional depth.

The next morning, Isabelle is alone in the albergue, about to clean the bathrooms. The male hosteler corners her and attacks her. As he pins her down and fumbles with her jeans, Peter charges in and knocks him off her, but Peter ends up on the floor and the hosteler punches him in the jaw before fleeing on his own. David arrives first, then Joe, then Jen, breathless, announcing she has called the police. Panicked at the thought of encountering authorities, Isabelle flees the albergue.

The morning after their rest day, Reina sets out from Logroño with Ted, Ned, and Gordon. They leave before Matt and his friends, who were loud and drunk the night before. Ned is in high spirits, having lost eight pounds and resolved to give up OREOs. The group stops at a café, and Ted insists on paying for Reina’s breakfast. While her friends are inside, Reina reflects on saving her money to help her Aunt Robbie.

When Matt and his group arrive, Reina seizes an opportunity for revenge. She sneaks over to his unattended pack, removes the rain cover, fills the empty pouch with rocks, and hides the cover in her waistband before returning to her table. When her friends return, she attributes her grin to the beautiful, rain-free forecast.

That night, Isabelle and Peter, whose arm is now in a cast, hide in a vineyard. Lying awake, Isabelle recounts to herself the events after she fled: David found her at the cathedral and brought her back to the group. The group reunites at a café, where Peter arrives from the hospital with a hairline fracture. Alone with him, Isabelle confesses her real name, her true home in Andorra, and the violent feud that forced her to run. Peter believes her and refuses to let her continue alone.

Isabelle and Peter walk out of the city together, and that evening, they share their first kiss. In the morning, Peter proposes a solution to her financial problems: He wants to write a Camino guidebook called Wisdom of the Way and offers to hire her as a researcher and translator. He confirms he had already discussed the idea with David after dinner in Puente la Reina, before the attack, which convinces Isabelle it is genuine. She agrees to help in exchange for food and lodging.

Reina hikes a grueling, solitary leg of the trail in intense heat. Her companions have either taken a taxi or stopped to wait for cooler temperatures. The physical and mental strain brings back sharp, painful memories of her father’s death. She recalls her Aunt Robbie telling her there had been an accident—something about a bird flying into her father’s plane. As she struggles, she finds Petra, an injured teenage pilgrim from Croatia who speaks no English or Spanish. Her ankle appears broken. Reina helps the girl down the steep, dangerous path.

Matt and his friend appear and carry both of their packs down the hill. At the road, Matt uses his fluent Spanish to arrange a taxi for Petra. Seeing how terrified Petra is, Reina decides to accompany her to the hospital.

Isabelle and Peter arrive happily in Nájera, taking detailed notes for their guidebook. The village is filled with pilgrim couples, and their own romance has deepened. They meet Carlos and Helena, a Spanish couple. When they ask about Peter’s cast, he jokes it was from an “angry nun” to avoid recounting the traumatic assault.

David and Jen arrive, now openly a couple, followed by Joe. The group enthusiastically discusses the guidebook project. Jen and David share a legend about the scallop shell, the symbol of the Camino. They tell the story of a groom who rode his horse off a cliff into the sea during a wedding game and was miraculously saved by the boat carrying Saint James’s remains, with the man and his horse rising from the water covered in scallop shells. Peter captures the entire story in his journal.