Marshall tries to ask partygoers if they’ve seen Abigail, and they ignore him. Suddenly, 20 men begin singing, accompanied by a pipe organ. Wes drags Marshall behind a large plant where the girls are also hiding. All the men chant with increasing intensity, and Alabaster raises an empty glass. Everyone else follows, bending forward to dip their cups into a pool of blood. They drink, and the music resumes. Wes, Marshall, Harper, and Louise watch in horror. They find the study, and Marshall shoots the lock on the door. They hear thumping behind another door, and Marshall shoots its lock, too. Abigail says that she can’t move, and Marshall asks who made the noise. Abigail points to the 20 pairs of eyes blinking in the darkness.

Back at the Flynns’ house, Bud sees Harper carrying six pizzas. He asks if she’s having a party and hears a noise from the other room. He demands answers, and she begins to explain that she and Louise went to rescue Abigail from Alabaster’s house. They found her, Harper says, in a locked room with 20 other girls who had been kidnapped and brought over in a cargo container. The girls, who are from Albania, are currently in the TV room. Bud asks where Catherine is, and Harper informs him that she’s having a relationship with the contractor.

Bud finds the room full of hungry girls and Marshall; Wes is in Abigail’s room with her, and Louise has gone to the deli for more food. He tells Harper that she should have called the police, and he feels awful that he benefited financially from the girls’ exploitation, especially because they are all so beautiful. He thinks that the trauma only deepens their beauty.

Catherine comes home, and Bud is impressed by her strength and focus. He says that he needs to take care of something and leaves while Catherine calls the police. Bud goes to Alabaster Manor and finds it vacated. When he enters, a telephone rings, and he answers. It’s Alabaster. Bud accuses him of human trafficking, and Alabaster demurs, saying that he’s only “borrowing,” that the girls and their families are compensated, and the girls are usually returned unharmed. When he mentions Abigail’s “good blood,” Bud tells the billionaire that he will get caught, but Alabaster doesn’t think so. He tells Bud a joke about priests sexually abusing children, and then he explains that the joke is funny because it conveys a truth that people so often avoid. Bud doesn’t think it’s funny.

Abigail feels unattractive in comparison to the Albanian girls. Most of the kidnapped girls are reunited with their families, but some decide to stay and enroll in school. The Flynns are regarded as heroes. Tibet hands over Alabaster’s guest list to the police. Dolt and Father Andrew disappear, and a new priest takes over the parish. Perry wins the Inner Beauty Pageant. Months go by. Bud plans to take Miss Winkle on an overnight trip, and Catherine volunteers herself and Remy to watch Perry. Abigail watches Catherine with Perry, struck by the idea that her mother isn’t a failure but, rather, that she gave up her bohemian dreams to be a parent. That night, Catherine asks Abigail to tell her about Wes.

Abigail and Wes go to the dance. She asks him what happens next, and they exchange admissions of love, accompanied by a “rather raunchy radio hit” (305). He tells her that she’s the boss and then insists on taking her somewhere to eat.

After Abigail’s kidnapping story, Louise is cast back into obscurity. She misses yourstruly. He had a purpose, and that gave her one too. She’s grounded indefinitely but still allowed to attend her mandated community service at the Jewish retirement center. One day, she finds a copy of the Torah and begins reading. A boy from a brother school, Caleb, strikes up a conversation; he’s visiting his grandmother. He introduces Louise to his grandmother, who invites her to stay for dinner. Caleb tells Louise that he admires her for protesting the pageant and taking a stand against beauty standards. She considers religion and decides to embrace the one that brings her a boyfriend; Judaism is in the lead. Louise stops eating bacon and begins observing the Sabbath. Bud begs her not to “get weird” on him again, or he’ll feel like a failure as a parent. She asks if she can invite her boyfriend to Harper’s birthday dinner. He says that she can, as long as the boyfriend isn’t a part of any terrorist organization. She agrees.

Girls usually ignore Myles Doherty. He doesn’t like them either because he thinks they are inferior. He is accustomed to hearing his father, Jim, refer to women as “[b]itches” whenever one does something Jim doesn’t like. Jim and Myles are at dinner at the same restaurant where Harper is celebrating her birthday, but Jim has stepped out to take a call. Myles plays a violent game on his tablet and yells out that the villains should “[s]uck [his] cock” (316). He overhears Jim saying that Catherine is a “dyke” and that he “[d]odged a bullet” with her (317). On his way back to the table, Jim calls the Flynns’ party “[f]reaks,” and Myles agrees, though they did save a lot of immigrant girls from the trafficking ring.

Jim’s phone rings, and Myles is alone again. He sees “the lesbian” and the contractor, the “church lady” and the “Flynn father,” “the boy from school,” the girls, and the “war criminal” laughing together (319). Despite the mix of religious and personal identities, they say grace together when the food comes. Myles is struck by how playful and engaged the girls are and how warm they all seem to be. It looks like love. He feels bewildered. When they notice him staring, they wave him over and make conversation. They show an interest, and he feels happy and calm with their easy banter. When Jim calls him back to the table, Myles hesitates, not wanting to leave.