In a cathedral, Isabelle observes a local tradition involving two caged chickens and reflects on the absurdity of the legend behind them. This sparks a memory from when she was 12 and her father sent her to Paris to learn German. A visit to a natural history museum and an exhibit on evolution made her question the literal truth of the Bible. When she questioned her father and a nun about it, she was physically punished. Since then, she has developed a personal faith that does not require her to take biblical stories literally. Peter joins her, and they leave the cathedral together, enjoying the lively town square.

Four days later, Reina’s group—which now includes Ted, Ned, and Gordon—reaches Burgos. Reina is physically exhausted, with a swollen knee and persistent blisters. Because Matt’s phone was destroyed, he and Reina have been working together, combining their notes on Reina’s phone to send a single nightly update. Upon arriving in the city, Matt announces he is going to buy a new phone, reigniting the competition with Reina. Reina is surprised to find she is a little sad about their truce ending, as she enjoyed their nightly routine of recapping the day.

Walking through the Meseta, a vast and featureless plain, Isabelle and Peter are alone. The desolate landscape prompts Isabelle to think about her family, and she becomes overwhelmed with worry, crying silently as she walks ahead of Peter. Sensing her sadness, he gives her space but eventually asks if he can help. She confesses that she misses her mother and is worried about her brother and sister. Peter listens quietly before telling her he thinks he has an idea to find out if they’re okay.

Reina, Gordon, Matt, and Matt’s friend Tuck are crossing the Meseta, a monotonous but deep section of the trail that Ted and Ned chose to skip by bus. The four have developed a routine, walking mostly in silence but sometimes playing games or singing TV theme songs. Reina is delighted to discover that Matt is a terrible, tone-deaf singer.

When they arrive in the village of Terradillos, marked as the halfway point of the Camino, Reina’s knee is throbbing. At the albergue, Matt tells her they have to go “shear sheep,” a strange plan he’d mentioned earlier. When she joins the group, she discovers a surprise birthday party. Matt must have organized it, having remembered her birthday either from the company newsletter or because John sent a balloon bouquet to the office. The biggest surprise is the arrival of her boyfriend, John, who flew from New York to be there.

In the city of León, Isabelle and Peter explore the cathedral after having spent their first night apart in separate dorms. While watching folk dancers in the square, Peter spontaneously tells Isabelle he loves her. She returns the sentiment in her native Catalan. They plan to have dinner with their group, after which Isabelle intends to use Joe’s mobile phone to secretly call her mother.

When they return to the convent albergue, they are confronted by Isabelle’s father and her brother, Xavier. The Mother Superior recognized Isabelle and contacted her school, which in turn called her father. He warns that Senor Sansas also knows she is on the Camino and that the danger is bigger than all of them—and Isabelle glimpses guilt in his eyes, sensing he is not entirely innocent in the twins’ deaths. Realizing the peril, Isabelle pretends to comply but then flees, running frantically through the city streets and escaping into the countryside.

Reina and her boyfriend, John, are in León. Reina reads her father’s journal entry from the city, in which he describes telling her mother he loves her for the first time. John, uninterested in sightseeing, urges her toward a bar where they meet up with Matt, Tuck, and their other Camino friends. The group plays the word-association game Compatibility, which Reina first read about in her father’s journal. Reina and John perform terribly, getting further apart with each guess, while Matt watches them intently. John then announces he came to Spain under false pretenses; it is the two-year anniversary of when he and Reina met. He gets down on one knee and proposes with a simple diamond ring. Thinking of him as a good, dependable man, Reina accepts.

After spending a night shivering in a field, Isabelle is cold, sick, and despondent. Unsure where to go, she begins walking west. She finds an unlocked church to take shelter from the rain and is shocked to find her Camino companions, Dan and Emily, inside. Overwhelmed with relief, Isabelle collapses in sobs. They comfort her, give her water, and listen as she explains what happened.

On a brutally hot day, Reina and her group are struggling up a long hill. Ted and Gordon are arguing, and everyone is exhausted and hungry. They stumble upon a seemingly miraculous trail-side refuge offering an abundance of free food and drink, run on a donation (donativo) basis. As they recover, Reina watches the humble man running the stand. When he offers sunscreen to Gordon, she recognizes his unaccented American English. As Reina is about to leave, she meets his eyes and is stunned to realize he is her Uncle David, her father’s brother who disappeared 17 years ago.

Dan and Emily help Isabelle formulate a plan. Concluding that the Camino and public transportation are too dangerous, they decide Isabelle should follow the railway tracks on foot to the coast. Dan and Emily will find Peter on the Camino and tell him to meet Isabelle in Finisterre in two weeks. With money and a sweatshirt from her friends, Isabelle sets off, sick but determined to reach Peter.

Reina stays behind at the refuge while her friends continue to Astorga. She watches her Uncle David tend to his mission with quiet devotion. Her initial euphoria at finding him alive gives way to anger that he never contacted his family. She asks him how her father broke his arm on the Camino. After an interruption from arriving pilgrims, David eventually explains that her father, Peter, was defending her mother, Isabelle, from an assault by a man at an albergue. He also shows emotion when he sees a photo of their companion Jen. David runs his refuge without electricity or running water, hiking into town daily for supplies. He promises to meet Reina the next morning to talk more before she has to leave.

Isabelle approaches Ponferrada, a city she must pass through. Her cold has worsened, and she is exhausted. While resting near some ruins, she discovers a litter of kittens whose mother has died. Choosing to save them, she risks entering the city in daylight. She is immediately spotted by two of Senor Sansas’s men. In a desperate chase, she uses a passing van for cover and evades her pursuers through the winding streets. She manages to hand the kittens to nurses outside a hospital before continuing her flight. She runs until her lungs give out and she collapses, vomiting and unable to breathe. A teenage boy named Pedro and his mother find her. When Isabelle hears the name “Pedro,” she thinks of Peter and feels God’s hand in it. Mistaking her for a survivor of domestic abuse, they take her into their home instead of calling an ambulance.