Liberated from Philomene’s false glimpsing, Narcisse fathers many white children and finds a respectable white woman to marry him. She asks him to take down the painting of Emily, and Narcisse does so with the intention of sending the painting to Emily. He legitimizes his only white son. He also prides himself on providing for his children and for allowing even the Black ones bear his name. Despite his open acknowledgment of his children by Philomene, Narcisse counsels Joseph to be more discreet about his relationship with Emily and Angelite. Joseph refuses to listen.

Emily and Joseph build a life together on Billes Landing, where they have a store. Emily manages the store and cares for her children in Joseph’s absence, as he travels frequently to source supplies and manage business interests. She still lives with her family. She also deals with the contempt of the white captains who deliver goods for the store. Her responsibilities are overwhelming, even with her family’s help with childcare. When Philomene points out how overburdened Emily is, Joseph brings poverty-stricken cousins of his from France and puts them to work in the store alongside Emily. When Joseph is not there, the cousins treat Emily like a servant. Interested in keeping the peace, Emily says nothing. Joseph builds a house for his cousins and for Emily, and Philomene gives Emily a rosebush to plant at her new home. The cousins leave because they refuse to stay in a house with a Black person, after which Emily manages the store alone once again.

Bet visits the house one day, and the visit is tense. As Emily explains that she is lonely and has no one, Bet bristles and tells Emily that she isn’t alone because she has her family. When Bet mentions several folk beliefs that the women of the family have, Emily asserts that they never taught her these things. Bet says they didn’t teach her either, but she learned by listening, something Emily must have missed out on since her mother and family gave her everything. Emily says she knows that people call her the “quadroon, the uppity one, the temptress, the one who doesn’t know her place” (375). Bet reminds Emily that her family never says such things about her. The conversation takes a different turn when Emily talks about her fear of what will happen to her and her children if she ever loses Joseph. Bet suggests that Emily should be more like Philomene and figure out how to get what she needs from Joseph in order to secure her future.

Emily’s son Eugene, who is now a young man, leaves his family behind so that he can pass for white.

Elisabeth is now 85, and it is 1880. She makes a quilt, gathering the pieces of cloth to make a design, getting the children to beat the cotton for the filling, and handing off the sewing to the other women when her eyesight fails her. One day, she is alone in the house when a white census-taker arrives to record the details of the people who live in the house. Elisabeth tries to answer his questions as he asks about the head of household, as well as the family members’ relationships, marital status, skin color, and birth details. She doesn’t always provide the answers as intended. She tells him that Philomene is the head of the house. When he asks about marital status, she refuses to answer because she believes that such information should be private, given the role of white men in the lives of the women in her family.

When he leaves, she is perturbed, and it takes her some time to realize that he brought shame into the house. Elisabeth recognizes that there are “[f]ive generations under one roof, all women, in an unbroken sequence, starting with her and descending down to Angelite. From coffee, to cocoa, to cream, to milk, to lily. A conscious and not-so-conscious bleaching of the line” (382). Even though she worries about the possible negative consequences of Emily and Joseph’s overt relationship, she sees Emily as the culmination of the women’s hopes and determination.

Tademy includes a facsimile of a census-taker’s report on the family.

It is 1888. When Elisabeth is on her deathbed, Emily brings her five children to be blessed. Emily believes that her great-grandmother has judged her in the end for not understanding the life that Elisabeth lived while enslaved. Emily spends more time at Philomene’s house in the weeks after Elisabeth’s death, to the point that Bet asks her why. Emily explains that she wishes she had been more curious about Elisabeth’s life.

Bet tells her that it wouldn’t have mattered since none of the women who were enslaved will talk about their experiences. Emily admits that she was always ashamed of Elisabeth’s tightly coiled hair and dark skin. Bet, who has the same physical features as Elisabeth, bristles, but Emily goes on to say that her feelings reflect what having lighter skin means for her children’s opportunities in life.

When Joseph is at home, his business partners—including Narcisse—are constantly coming in and out of the house. These white men either ignore Emily or are cool toward her. Narcisse and two other men tell Joseph that there is a dangerous and growing opposition to Joseph and Emily’s relationship; violence is imminent in the community. Joseph tells Emily that he is leaving for New Orleans and will live there permanently. He will return when he can. He says that Emily can keep the store to support herself and the children. When Emily tells him that it would be safer for her and the children if they all went to New Orleans, Joseph refuses to take them.

Joseph eventually returns, but by then, Emily and the townspeople have changed. Emily is harder and more insistent that Joseph provide money for her and a future for his children. After he finds her one night in a fragile state, he agrees to give her an allowance, and she saves all the money; their relationship is now transactional. However, the white community’s opposition to his life with Emily has only grown during Joseph’s absence, with warning signs everywhere that matters will soon come to a head. There is talk of outlawing cohabitation between Black and white people. People openly condemn Joseph for his relationship, and an aging Narcisse tells Joseph that he can no longer provide much protection. He advises Joseph to do what he did—marry a white woman and keep Emily on the side. Joseph refuses to continue the conversation. One night, a group of men threaten Joseph, and someone burns the family’s barn and slits their chickens’ throats.

Narcisse’s death removes their last protection. It is 1896, a time when opposition to domestic and romantic relationships between white people and Black people grows to violent levels. Angelite’s white fiancé leaves for France after nightriders—a posse of white men who enforce racial divides with violence and threats—burn his barn and cut off part of his finger. Angelite refuses to pass for white in France, so she stays behind. Nightriders threaten Joseph again, and he drives them off with his gun. The encounter shakes him. He forces Emily to move to a new house at Cornfine Bayou, deeds the land there to his children, and gives her $500, fulfilling her wish for money of her own. On the day he forces her to leave Billes Landing, she only takes her portrait (which she now sees as mocking her), a horse, and her rose bushes. Joseph marries an older, respectable white woman named Lola Grandchamp, who sees his money and land as adequate compensation for her agreeing to overlook his past with Emily.

Emily misses Narcisse and frequently visits his grave with Suzette. When Philomene finally visits the grave, she spits on it and says Narcisse stole everything from her. Suzette reminds her that Narcisse gave her children and protected the family from the auction block. Imitating Bet’s perspective, Emily tells her mother that her heritage isn’t what Narcisse did to her. It is her family and the love they share.

Emily is so despondent about the end of her life with Joseph that Philomene sells her hard-won land and uproots Suzette by moving near Cornfine Bayou. She sells her land to Joseph and tells Philomene that fragility is not the way of her family. She muses, “Maybe this was the lesson each generation had to learn, over and over again. Where the strength began, and how it kept itself alive,” and she tells Emily, “I am the rock in your garden, Emily, and you are the bloom in mine. Count on me” (431). Suzette brings Emily’s neglected rosebushes back to health and changes her last name (again), becoming a DeNegre. With her family and children around her, Emily rediscovers her joy in life.

Angelite dies in childbirth. T.O., one of Emily and Joseph’s older children, has been adrift since Joseph made the family leave Billes Landing. The rupture between Emily and Joseph heals, and Joseph begins visiting again. His wife Lola initially tolerates Joseph’s children when they visit, but her anger boils over when Joseph resumes his relationship with Emily. Burdened by the conflict, Joseph becomes addicted to alcohol.