A customer knocks on the Antidote’s door, and she tells Dell to hide in the closet. The customer, John Boyet, has been her client for 15 years. He is on his way out of town with his family—relocating to Sacramento—and wants to withdraw his deposits before leaving. The process of withdrawing a memory requires the customer to recite a deposit number backward; the Antidote then enters a trance state and repeats the memory back to the customer.

Boyet recites his number, but the Antidote is unable to enter the trance.

From the closet, Dell hears John Boyet choking the Antidote. Armed with knowledge of an extramarital affair Boyet had with a woman who later died of pneumonia (information Dell gleaned from the Party Line), Dell shouts out to Boyet, pretending to be the ghost of his deceased lover. Boyet rushes out of the room, and the Antidote agrees to take Dell on as her apprentice.

To determine whether she has lost her skills as a Vault entirely, she asks Dell to make a deposit. Dell does and feels instantly lighter. The Antidote asks her to attempt to withdraw the deposit, but what comes out of the Antidote is not a true withdrawal but bits of the original memory mixed with the Antidote’s words. Though the Antidote is fearful that her livelihood has indeed ended, Dell suggests a plan to keep the deposits coming in: The Antidote will plant fake, happier withdrawals in her clients. The Antidote is skeptical that this plan will work but is willing to try it.

For the first client who comes to withdraw a deposit, Dell writes a story that she asks the Antidote to memorize. The story is developed in part with details Dell has gleaned from listening to the Party Line. The “withdrawal” is a success and Dell is confident that she can “rewrite” history.

That Thursday, Dell practices basketball with the team, which now calls itself “The Dangers.” There are two tense moments during the practice: first when the team brings up the failed execution of Dew, and second when a player calls an Indigenous teammate a racial slur. Both moments are patched up, and Dell asserts that winning the tournament will stop the dust from blowing.

In the weeks that follow, there is a rush to withdraw memories from the Antidote as citizens flee Uz. Dell secretly calls herself and her mentor “the Counterfeits,” and the opportunity to be creative makes her feel happy and alive in way she has not been for some time. Each time a customer makes a deposit, Dell is hidden in the closet, recording it onto paper.

Harp attends a meeting of the Nebraska State Grange and is surprised to be unanimously elected Grange Master. All the members are amazed at the success he has had in dry farming and are eager to know his secret; Harp insists the success is a complete mystery to him.

Cleo Allfrey appears at the meeting; she takes a photo of Harp, despite his protests.

The Scarecrow watches as a hawk scoops up a rabbit, then watches Harp eat his lunch as he farms.

The chapter begins with letters from Roy Stryker, criticizing the photos Allfrey has sent to him. When he rejects a photo, Stryker punches a hole into the negative with a hole punch. Allfrey, an African American woman, is eager to capture diverse people and scenes with her photography, but Stryker criticizes them as attempts at artistry. He stresses that their aim is not to make art but to provide documentary proof that Roosevelt’s New Deal is needed.

The Antidote is busy with new deposits. One day, Sheriff Iscoe brings his new deputy in, forcing him to make a deposit, then he himself makes one. Though the sheriff has forced many people to make deposits over the years, this is the first time he has made one himself. He explains that he plans to withdraw the deposit after delivering his speech for reelection.

In the deposited memory, Sheriff Iscoe recalls discovering the body of another murdered woman—this one named Mink Petrusev. The new body means that Clemson Louis Dew, whom the sheriff framed for six previous murders by planting rabbits’ feet at the scenes, cannot be responsible for any of them. Eager to hide this new evidence, Sheriff Iscoe forced Percy, the new deputy, to help him move and bury the body.

The Antidote is burdened by the guilt of Iscoe’s confession and feels as though she has been an accomplice in his crime.

Dell drives the team to the tournament in a van that one of the players borrowed from the Baptist church. Dust surrounds them constantly, but Dell is determined to reach their destination and to win the tournament.

After the meeting, Harp goes home with a woman named Urna. They stay up talking until four o’clock in the morning and then have sex. When Harp returns home at 10 o’clock in the morning, he finds a note from Dell, explaining that she has gone to the tournament. Harp feels grateful for his good fortune—being with Urna and the inexplicable success of his wheat crop—but also guilty.

The scarecrow watches a herd of antelope and experiences joy, questioning how he is able to feel this way. He longs for Harp to acknowledge him.

Soon after her arrival in the prairie, Allfrey’s camera and film are stolen. She finds another, better camera—her dream camera—at a pawn shop. The camera is new, and she wonders how it came to be pawned and who could have owned it. The pawn shop owner suggests Allfrey photograph a local archaeological dig in which researchers are searching for remnants from the Pawnee tribes who previously lived on the land.

After visiting and leaving the site, Allfrey continues until she is forced to stop for the night in the only nearby town: Uz. She takes a room at the boardinghouse above the saloon, where she meets Dell at the bar.