The narrator sees Marta sitting among her dahlias. She thinks of how old age manifests in Marta and others as their lives take new shape. The narrator finds this kind of life attractive, not because of old age but because of the way in which the old ignore time. The narrator suddenly feels Marta’s thoughts push into her mind: “The most beautiful petals are the ones chewed jagged by snails. The most beautiful are the least perfect” (368).

As the narrator sits on her terrace, watching a thunderstorm approach, she realizes that she knows the world. Over time, she recognizes more and more of what is in front of her and that it now feels as though there is nothing new in the world for her to discover. This discovery makes the narrator feel as though the world is closing in around her, and she wonders why it took her so long to realize that nothing new ever happens.

The chapter ends with a recipe for Stuffed amanitas.

The couple, both evacuees from eastern Poland, met in their new village. She worked in the pharmacy, while he worked in the mine. They married two months after their first meeting, and moved into one of the empty houses and made a life together among the former residents’ belongings.