The people of Wieland speculate on the demise of the man in the car wreck. As the public gains more information, it becomes clear from the position of the tire tracks on the hill that it’s unlikely to be an accident. Identifying the remains is difficult, but the white Acura is traceable to Francis Fox.

Detective Horace Zwender of the Wieland Police Department comes to talk to P. Cady, the headmistress of Langhorne. Cady immediately remembers her dog’s discovery of the human tongue. At the time, she had felt that it was foolish to get involved. Cady, who keeps herself aloof from the faculty, has not heard the “ugly rumors, unspeakable rumors” about Fox that have begun to circulate Langhorne (81). Cady doesn’t want to talk to Zwender, whom she immediately sees as somewhat beneath her. This is the first time that Cady has ever been questioned by the police, and she views it as an imposition. She tells Zwender that she doubts the remains are Fox’s. Zwender asks if they can look at Fox’s office since it might help with identification of the remains, but Cady tells him no. He asks again, and the challenges to Cady’s authority and her shifting view of Fox cause her to faint in distress.

Genevieve reiterates her loyalty to Fox and basks in the idea that he “will love [her] forever” (89). She hasn’t seen Fox for nine days due to the fall break, during which time she became increasingly bored with what “Mr. Fox has identified as faux-family emotions” (90). She writes of Fox in her secret journal and relives their activities. Fox has convinced Genevieve that their souls have immediately recognized each other and compares them to Edgar Allan Poe and his wife Viriginia Clemm, who was 13. Fox has whispered Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee” to soothe Genevieve after she was frightened by the bronze statue of Poe in Fox’s office. Genevieve reveals that she has stopped eating in an effort to stave off maturation since Fox has made clear his dislike of “chubbies, butterballs, and little piggies” (94). She has regularly sent Fox nude selfies, which he makes her promise to delete immediately. When Genevieve began to cut herself with sharp objects at home, Fox made her promise not to do so. Over the fall break, she hasn’t heard from Fox, which profoundly upsets her. She remembers him making her read an essay aloud in class and leading the applause for her. Shortly thereafter, he invited her to his office for the first time. She reveals that Fox has often taken pictures of her during sexual acts. When she hears that something horrible happened to Fox and that he hasn’t returned, Geneivieve covers her ears in denial. A substitute arrives, but the class descends into chaos, and Genevieve faints.

Martin Pfenning watches the news while having a drink and learns that authorities believe the unidentified remains belong to Fox. As he looks at a photograph, Pfenning finds himself identifying with the missing teacher. He notes that Genevieve has attempted suicide, while another classmate (later revealed to be Mary Ann) has run away. Pfenning remembers his wife, Kathryn, lauding Fox for pushing Eunice intellectually and suddenly realizes that Fox’s remains were near where he and Eunice hiked. Reflecting on Eunice’s extreme reaction to the doll, he thinks of her diagnosis of autism. Since the hike, Eunice has often been ill, has had nightmares, and refuses to speak to him. Kathryn has found a “large, heavy ring—a man’s ring—beneath [Eunice’s] pillow” (111), which Eunice claims she found at school. She has also told her mother that her raincoat and backpack were stolen. Pfenning wonders about the safety of the school.

When an agitated Kathryn calls him later in the evening and tells him to come over, Pfenning is worried that Eunice has injured herself “[l]ike the other girls in Fox’s classes” (116). Arriving, he is shocked by Kathryn’s distraught appearance. She tells him that Eunice has accused Pfenning of having touched her “‘in a bad way’—‘with his tongue’” (118). Pfenning is shocked by these accusations and insists that he’s innocent. Kathryn tells him that she’ll be contacting her lawyer. She orders him to leave. Pfenning keeps trying to explain what really happened, but Kathryn won’t listen. Defeated, he drives away, feeling discombobulated.

Eunice’s point of view is expressed through a dream in which she notices that Fox’s office door in Haven Hall is unlocked. She glides through it, noticing the books, one of John Tenniel’s drawings of Lewis Carroll’s Alice, and the bust of Poe and his raven. She feels like she cannot hope to be one of Fox’s favorites despite wanting to be. Suddenly, she notices that Fox is missing from the location. The dream abruptly switches so that she is now knocking on the door, asking for entry. She hopes to talk to Fox about a journal entry or about her latest grade, which is not as high as it should be. She starts to feel faint and then realizes that she can’t breathe. Crying, she tries to scream as she is forced to give oral sex to Fox. To escape, she begins to destroy her Mystery-Journal, but she doesn’t have enough strength to tear off the cover.

The narrative shifts eight years back in time to show how Fox comes to work at the Langhorne school. Having been suspended from teaching middle school at the Newell Johnson School in Pennsylvania, Fox is staying temporarily in Maine. His lawyer, Simon Grice, is trying to reach him. At this time, Fox is using the name Frank Harrison Farrell. He has been exiled due to his relations with his student Miranda Myles, 12. Miranda died by suicide, and her mother is trying to prosecute Fox. He ponders escaping to Canada but knows that he must return to face charges, even though he thinks he is innocent. He states that he only knew Miranda for eight months and that were intimate for only three. Fox does not think of himself as a “deviant” and says that he despises the novelist Vladimir Nabokov’s famous pedophile Humbert Humbert, narrator of Lolita. He feels that, by contrast, he was gentle and kind with Miranda.

Like his later targets at Langhorne, he had Miranda write in a secret journal. He discovered through it that Miranda’s father died by suicide, and he exploited this information to win her trust. Miranda became obsessed with Fox, which made him nervous. Still, he was sure that she would keep their relations a secret. He is distressed when he later learns that she “left behind a [personal] diary after all” (138). Like Genevieve, Miranda lost weight, became uninterested in her usual activities, and began cutting herself. Fox feels that “out of respect for Miranda he made himself receptive to her love [and] could not reject it” (141). He tries to convince his lawyer that the pair’s relationship existed outside of societal law, but Grice doesn’t buy it. Fox goes to a bar and uses the name Francis for the first time, feeling like it suits him more than Frank. Drunk, he cries on the female bartender’s shoulder, telling her that Miranda has died by suicide and that he failed her. In the morning, Grice tells him that the school is willing to negotiate.

Three weeks after Miranda Myles was found dead, Fox returns to Quakerbridge. Grice is going to use Miranda’s mental health conditions—which Fox largely caused—and her possible autism to cast doubt on Fox’s guilt. He says that what she wrote about a “Mr. Tongue or a Mr. Teddy Bear” can be cast in doubt since she “had quite an imagination” (150). He will paint Miranda as looking to Fox for comfort and pursuing him. She never complained about him, nor is there any evidence she was in his car or went home with him. Grice threatens the Newell School’s headmaster, saying that he’ll publicly expose the many problems students that have had on campus, including older sexual assaults (not committed by Fox) that will destroy the school’s esteemed reputation. As a result, Grice secures Fox a severance package, a glowing letter of recommendation, and a paid sabbatical. In gratitude, Fox vows to change his life, promising that there will never be another Miranda.