The town square contains an art installation consisting of six-foot cedar balls, though they have become termite dens, making the area unusable for the town. Harper believes that they are an apparatus by which Paul Alabaster, her father’s boss, spies on the town. She believes that Alabaster’s employees orchestrated the infestation when she got wise to the operation. Harper insists to Catherine that there’s a conspiracy and a cover-up happening in the harbor. The next day, Harper is called to the Mother Superior’s office at school. On the “free speech” bulletin board, Harper posted something about the cedar balls watching everyone, and she tells the nun that they are living in a panopticon. When Harper accuses the Mother Superior of censoring free speech, she is suspended again.

That Friday, Harper plans a sit-in, but only Perry Winkle shows up. Perry tells Harper that Bud comes over to her house at night. Later, Bud tells Harper that he is going to send her to the camp for kids classed as “troubled.” She continues to claim that there’s something nefarious happening at the harbor and asks if he’s sleeping with Miss Winkle.

Abigail’s friends are impressed that she’s dating a soldier, and they watch for him when he picks Abigail up from school. Wes tells Abigail to eat more, revealing that he has an autoimmune disorder that targets his bowels. Wes sends most of his earnings home to his family. She appreciates his maturity and feels that she’s in love. Her sisters know to cover for her, but it isn’t usually necessary because their parents are so wrapped up in their own problems. Abigail meets Wes’s roommate, Marshall, and she learns that Wes is smart and sweet. Her classmates think that she’s dating a “warlord,” but she sees that he is sensitive and gentle. About a month into their relationship, Wes’s demeanor changes. He starts staying late at work and stops picking her up at school. When one of her girlfriends suggests that Wes is cheating, Abigail punches the girl in the face.

Paul Alabaster is unpredictable. One day, Wes sees the girl who works for him panicking because the invitations for Alabaster’s upcoming party were printed in the wrong shade of black. She sits with the box of invitations open in front of her, and Wes thumbs through them, noting that they’re all addressed to men: all but one, which is addressed to Abigail. The girl tells him to ignore what he saw, but he decides to hire a private investigator. Marshall gives him the phone number for a man with “everything.” Wes meets this man and says that he needs intel on Alabaster. The man warns him that he might come across information that Wes wishes he didn’t know, but Wes assures him that he wants to risk it. When Wes gets home, he finds Abigail waiting. She says that she’ll die by suicide if he doesn’t tell her what’s going on, and he realizes that he loves her. He says that he has to protect her and that that’s why he’s keeping his distance. She tells him that she loves him, and he smiles. Then, he grimaces painfully and says that he has a stomachache.

Miss Winkle feels guilty about sleeping with Bud because he’s married, but he makes her feel happy. She thinks of the candy bar that mixes dark and milk chocolate, claiming that the bitterness makes it better, and she completely disagrees. Bud makes her think that the world might not be cruel after all.

One day, she goes to the church for the Lost Lambs meeting and finds a sign saying that it’s closed for fumigation. She decides to hold the meeting in the garden. That night, Perry tells her that something bad is going to happen, and Miss Winkle tells her not to think such scary thoughts. When Perry asks what’s happening in the church, Miss Winkle tells her that it’s being fumigated because of the gnats, and Perry starts sobbing. Miss Winkle thinks that Perry might be right: They may be playing God by deciding what gets to live and what dies. In the Bible, she reasons, God sends insects as punishment. She wonders if Perry has insight into something everyone else has lost.

Harper thinks that she’s been sent to Saint Peter’s Nature and Wilderness Retreat because she got too close to the truth. A busload of kids is dumped in the wilderness and told that their belongings, which have been confiscated, are a luxury they must earn. They can earn these luxuries, and others, through manual labor and emotional vulnerability.

Around the campfire at night, the girls are encouraged to share. When Harper confesses that her family is being surveilled by a billionaire, she earns nothing. When she confesses that her married parents are dating other people, she earns a brownie. The next morning, she gets her period for the first time. After several days, she sees her reflection in another camper’s mirror, and for the first time, she thinks that she is pretty.