In 1997, Isabelle, using the name “Joan,” has been working at an inn in a Portuguese village for three weeks. Gemma left a week prior, after making Isabelle promise to eat. Isabelle has lost a significant amount of weight and feels intensely lonely and heartbroken over Peter. She has since mailed a repayment check to her Camino companion Dan.

The kind inn owner, Carolina, knows about Isabelle’s heartbreak and gently encourages her to move past it. She informs Isabelle that a young apprentice stonemason named Alberto, who has been a daily customer, has come to see her with flowers. Carolina shares a Portuguese proverb about learning to be content with one’s circumstances. Resigned, Isabelle forces a smile and goes to greet the young man, knowing he is not Peter but might be a practical choice for her future.

Uncle David finds Reina in the albergue courtyard and comforts her after her disastrous encounter with Matt. Reina admits she feels completely lost about her future. David reveals that he never returned home after his own Camino because he was in unrequited love with his companion, Jen. He gives Reina an envelope for Aunt Robbie containing a check and an explanatory letter. He also gives her a heavy box, instructing her not to open it until she has completed her journey in Santiago. He then shares that Joe, the fourth member of their parents’ group, died of cancer the previous year.

David confirms he will not be walking into the city with them tomorrow, as it has too many “ghosts.” Before leaving the topic, David recounts a story from his pilgrimage. In Santiago, an old woman gave Reina’s father a message: “Don’t think. Wish. And the future will be what you dream” (277). The group believed the woman was an embodiment of Reina’s mother, giving Peter the faith to continue searching for her. David advises Reina to start “listening to [her] heart instead of [her] head” (278).

In 1998, Isabelle has been dating Alberto for six months. Three weeks ago, Gemma sent her a news clipping revealing that Isabelle’s father, Ruben Vidal, had been murdered, his body found bludgeoned on a smuggling route.

While Isabelle is working at the café, Alberto arrives dressed in his Sunday best. He drops to one knee and proposes to “Joan” with a simple gold ring. Believing that Peter is gone from her life forever and that Alberto is a kind and decent man who offers a safe future, Isabelle accepts his proposal.

In Santiago, Reina and her seven companions receive their Compostelas, the official certificates marking their completion of the 775-kilometer pilgrimage. For Reina, the achievement feels unfinished, and the day is tinged with melancholy. As planned, Uncle David had said his goodbyes at Monte do Gozo, the final peak overlooking the city, before turning back.

The group attended mass at the cathedral, but Matt avoided Reina the entire day. She tried to approach him twice to apologize, but he sped up to prevent her from talking to him. That evening, Ted and Ned share an emotional farewell with Reina before they depart for Bilbao. Ned quotes Winnie the Pooh, saying, “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard” (291), leaving Reina to grapple with the end of her transformative journey.

One month into her engagement to Alberto, Isabelle sits by a river with a feral cat she has named Joe. She is not ready to marry and is using the pretext of a year-long mourning period for her father to delay the wedding. To move forward, she takes a decisive step to let go of her past.

Isabelle writes a final letter to Peter, explaining that she couldn’t meet him in Finisterre because she could not ask him to sacrifice his life in New York. In the letter, she calls him her “greatest adventure and [her] greatest love” (289). She encloses 50,000 pesetas to repay what she owes him and addresses the envelope to his father’s construction company in New York, leaving the return address blank.

On her last night in Santiago, Reina stays in a luxury hotel room, a gift from Ted. She finally opens the heavy box from Uncle David and discovers it is filled with notes, photos, and research for Wisdom of the Way. The materials include meticulous notes in her mother’s handwriting, a notebook belonging to Joe, and contributions from Uncle David.

Feeling overwhelmed by the crossroads before her, Reina reads Matt’s submitted article and is humbled by its brilliance. Instead of submitting her own competing story, she spends the next five hours copyediting Matt’s work, adding suggestions and a link to her photos. She then drafts an email to her boss, Brenda, tendering her resignation so she can continue her journey of self-discovery. She attaches the edited article, praises Matt, and CCs him. Before clicking send, she adds a postscript for him: “After O Cebreiro, none of it was about the story” (297).

While working in the café kitchen, Isabelle is preparing her mother’s trinxat recipe when a voice calls her “Bella.” The name freezes her. She turns and sees Peter standing in the doorway. He is clean-shaven with short hair, and the boyishness she remembers is gone. He tells her he never would have stopped looking for her, saying, “You are my heart” (300).

A week after finishing the Camino, Reina is in the Andorran village of Dur, hiking Smuggler’s Pass with her Aunt Ana, the town’s savvy mayor. Reina learns the feud ended long ago and the town is now a prosperous tourist destination. She has also met her Uncle Xavier, her grandmother, Mi Jefa, and five cousins.

That evening at the family tavern, Matt appears, also clean-shaven and with short hair. He gives Reina a pre-press copy of Journey magazine, showing her the cover story is now bylined by both of them. He repeats her words from the email, then gives her a gentle kiss. As Aunt Ana taunts them, Matt pulls Reina into a dramatic kiss as the room cheers. He then raises his fist in triumph, yelling, “Yes! Shaggy finally gets the girl!” (307).