Ted awakens in tears—his father had cancer for a long time, so he has few childhood memories where his father wasn’t sick. The conductor offers his help, but Ted lies and says it’s allergies. The conductor tells him that Louisa got off the train, but it is still in the same station because of mechanical issues. 

Ted gets off the train and takes off running to find her, calling her name. Two men offer to help but instead grab Ted, mug him, and beat him until he loses consciousness. They take his watch, a gift from the artist with all his friends’ names engraved on the back.

Ted’s older brother beat him when they were kids, once so severely that he had to go to the hospital. Another time, one of his brother’s friends, a large boy called “Ox,” bullied Ted using anti-gay slurs. When Ox turned his bullying against Ted’s brother, Ted threw a beer can at his face, and Ox retaliated by severely beating him. 

Ted’s mother never did anything about the abuse. When she discovered his brother looking at porn, she dismissed it as “natural,” saying that’s what boys do: fight and think about sex. Once, Ted overheard her on the phone saying that at least his brother’s activities proved he wasn’t “you know,” which made Ted fearful for the rest of his life.

One of the men mugging Ted cries out, and Ted realizes Louisa is beating them off with a metal pipe. Her violence surprises her, and Louisa thinks something “must be missing inside her” (255). She drags Ted to his feet, and they start running. They get back to the train just in time to see it departing the station.

Ted is bleeding from his nose, and both he and Louisa are crying. He can’t understand why she left the train but thanks her for coming back to rescue him. Louisa explains that she’s never trusted men, something Ted understands. She tells him that she doesn’t want the responsibility of the painting, which is ironic because it’s on the train without them. The two attackers catch up to them, though one has a broken arm, and Ted and Louisa take off running again.

Ted and Louisa hide in the bushes, but the trauma of their situation triggers Ted’s memories of his father’s funeral. It was a small affair, and he didn’t cry until he was alone in the church, and his friends came to be by his side. The attackers get closer, but a taxi driver stops in front of the bushes, saving them from being exposed. The driver is an older woman, and she offers to drive them to catch the train. Ted is reluctant, but they hear a dog barking, and Louisa doesn’t like dogs, so they jump into the car.

Ted is also scared of dogs. He remembers the day of his father’s funeral, when Joar grilled the priest with questions about why God would allow people to die from cancer. The priest encouraged Joar to ask God. He also found one of the artist’s sketches, which depicted Christ on the cross, and declared it a masterpiece, predicting that the artist would one day be famous. 

Leaving the church, the friends spotted bags of recyclables, which they collected to exchange for money. Ted saw one, but when he approached, he discovered it wasn’t a black trash bag but a large dog. The dog chased him until his friends helped scare it away.

Ted and Louisa hop into the cab, and Ted sits in the back next to the driver’s houseplant, Albert. The driver speeds up to catch up with the train, blasting opera music and telling them about her 40-year-long marriage and seven children. The opera reminds Ted of the artist, as he used to play opera to remind Ted that there’s still beauty in the world. 

They arrive at the next station just in time to watch the train pass, but it does not stop. The cab driver takes them to the next town, which is near the sea, and Louisa pays her with the money she took from Ted’s wallet, which is still on the train. The cab driver wishes them well, saying, “The first day of the rest of your lives, this? So live this life!” (282).

Ted accidentally steps in dog feces, which reminds him of an incident that happened 25 years ago that summer. The friends were lying on the pier devising a plan to get the artist’s paints. It was raining, and Ted told them the smell of rain is called “petrichor.” Ali told him he should be a teacher, a prophetic statement. 

On the walk home, Ted stepped in dog feces. Then they found a dead bird, which “was the beginning of the end of summer” (285). They buried the bird and gave it a funeral. There was a second bird, trapped in a net and injured. Joar carried home in an empty pill container, hopeful his mother could save it.

Ted and Louisa walk to the train station, but the lost and found is closed. Louisa wants to break in, but Ted says no. They argue, and Ted blurts out that it’s Louisa’s fault they’re in this mess, but he instantly regrets saying it. Louisa tries not to cry but agrees with Ted that she is the problem, which is why she was trying to get away. Ted admits to contemplating leaving her before she ran away.

At the station, they see the woman with the baby from the train, who disembarked and was waiting for them. She has the boxed painting and Ted’s suitcase but not the box of ashes. She left it on the train and thinks the conductor threw it away. Ted is horrified but doesn’t tell her. They thank her for waiting for them. 

Louisa wants to chase the train to retrieve the ashes, but Ted says sarcastically that the artist enjoyed traveling, so they won’t worry about it. He apologizes for accusing her of ruining everything. They break into a sporting goods store and buy gear so that Ted can teach her how to swim in the sea, her lifelong dream ever since she first saw the painting.

Ted says that the day the friends found the bird was one of the last times they would swim together, but they didn’t know it at the time. Joar took the injured bird home to his mother because if anyone could save it, it was her. Joar’s mom was his best friend. She always made him feel special, and when they were having fun together, it was a way to escape the “invisible prison” they lived in with his father. She tried to feed the bird and give it water. Joar’s father arrived home drunk and seeing them helping the bird triggered his rage.

Ted and Louisa sit together after swimming and watch the sun rise. Ted hasn’t swum in 25 years. Louisa wishes Fish could experience the sea. She apologizes for the artist’s ashes getting lost on the train, but they agree it’s fun to think about him traveling even in death. Ted says that he wants his ashes scattered in a library. 

Louisa holds one of Fish’s cigarettes, which Ted recognizes as the type his mother used to smoke. He shares with Louisa the difficulties his mother had with caring for him and his brother while also dealing with his father’s illness. Ted got behind in school, and he feared he was a disappointment to her. He says that she made him move to the basement, but Louisa suggests that it was her way of protecting him from his brother’s abuse and seeing his father’s illness.

Ted tells Louisa that the day they found the bird, his brother came home drunk from the docks where he works with Ox, his hand red and swollen from fighting. Their mom was out, and Ted feared his brother might hit him. His brother seemed sad, so Ted reassured him that he wasn’t a bad person; he just had the wrong friends. His brother lamented not having friends like Ted. 

Ted got ice for his brother’s hand, and they shared beers. His brother reminisced about their father before his illness and shared their parents’ love story. As immigrants, life was hard, but they loved each other deeply. His brother talked about their mother holding their father in his last moments. He prepared a meal from the freezer, and when their mom returned, they slept outside her door for protection. That night, Joar appeared outside Ted’s window with bloody hands.

The night Joar’s father came home drunk, he beat Joar’s mom and stomped on the box that had contained the bird. However, Joar had hidden the bird in the flower box outside the window. After his father passed out on the couch, Joar retrieved the bird from the box, cutting his hands on the window, and took the bird to Ted to keep it safe. He and his mother scrubbed their blood off the floor. The bird survived, and the friends invited Joar’s mom to the pier with them to release the bird. It flew out over the ocean and then turned around to fly back into town. That was the last day Ted and his friends swam in the sea together.

When it begins to rain, Ted and Louisa run for cover so that the painting isn’t damaged. When they reach the train station, the police are checking identification because two men reported being attacked by a “gang” at the last station. Louisa can’t find her passport, but when the officer assumes she and Ted are traveling together, he lets them pass. Louisa says she needs to take better care of her passport, as she feels, “It’s the only proof that I exist […] (337), but Ted says that she and her art are “proof enough.” They board a sleeper car train, and once tucked inside their berth, fall fast asleep in their bunks.

When they wake up, Louisa wants to hear the rest of the story. Ted says that the day after they released the bird, Joar wanted to steal bicycles to purchase the supplies the artist needed, but Ted refused to allow it. It was Joar’s birthday, and they had a small celebration. 

The next day, Joar’s mother woke him early to give him his present: a new bicycle. Joar rode it into town and sold it back to the sporting goods store. He was late to meet his friends but brought them into town to the art store. They assumed he was going to steal the supplies, but the artist showed him what he needed, and he used the money from the bike to purchase “the canvas and paint that would change the world” (346). Louisa declares it a “good ending” and doesn’t ask for more information.