When Mary finds out that Celestine is pregnant with her brother’s child, she calls Sita to tell her that she has a sewing machine to give her. It is the sewing machine that Adelaide sent to her years ago. She then takes a walk, thinks of Karl, and falls into a kind of meditative trance. She knows that Celestine’s baby will be a girl.

Sita marries the state health inspector after he is summoned to investigate her restaurant. Louis Tappe is a scientific man, interested in examining insects and other specimens. He moves into her big house in Blue Mound.

One morning, she finds her cousin Karl sleeping in her garden. She is frightened, but since her husband, Louis, is nearby, she eventually invites him in. He is carrying a New Testament copy of the Bible. When Karl excuses himself to use the bathroom, Sita notices that the Bible is inscribed to Celestine James; she immediately becomes convinced that Karl has stolen it and is here to steal her jewelry. She calls the sheriff, who shows up as the three are eating sandwiches on the back porch. When she goes upstairs to prove that Karl has stolen her necklace, she finds it still there. There has been a misunderstanding. However, Sita seems to sink deeper into a kind of hysteria, imagining that Karl’s chair is sinking into the grass and covering him over. She begins to speak of judgment and guilt, and she seems to condemn Louis for his scientific ways.

Russell still prefers to stay on the reservation, even though Karl is gone from the house he and Celestine used to share. He constructs a fishing shack in the woods by the river, waiting for the water to freeze around it so he can ice fish in the winter. His work as a mechanic is irregular, which suits him fine: “What he liked about not working at a regular job was exactly this. He could lay here all afternoon if he felt like it and just get drunk” (154). Celestine occasionally came by the fishing shack, though Russell disapproves of her incursions; she tidies things and disrupts his privacy. He retreated from her once he discovered her pregnancy—though she and Karl did get married, at least for form’s sake—and spends most of his time alone.

He breaks through the thin film of ice covering the hole in the shack’s floor and catches a pike. He remembers the fullness of Celestine’s body the last time he saw her. He begins to feel a strange tingling and then a burst of pain; he has had a stroke. Celestine comes to check on him and rushes to get help.

Wallace keeps a picture of his “’poor dead sweetheart’” hanging in his living room (159), though in fact he does not know the woman. The story of his dead sweetheart serves as an alibi, a way to dodge any awkward questions about why he has never married. He is busily invested in the town of Argus, serving on the Chamber of Commerce, overseeing the sugar beet fields, working with the park board, and serving as a member of the Knights of Columbus. Until he met Karl at the convention, Wallace was not clearly aware that he was gay. Though he knows Karl is Mary’s brother, he tells her nothing about having met him.

After Karl’s accident in the hotel room, Wallace stays with him for several days, visiting him in the hospital. Karl’s apparent indifference eventually drives Wallace away, and then one evening, Wallace receives a phone call from Karl, who wants to see him. He shows up at the house—Wallace has no idea how Karl knows where he lives—and stays for two weeks, before abruptly leaving. Wallace follows the stray dog Karl feeds, thinking it might lead him somewhere, only to find Karl at Celestine James’s house. He hides in the foliage, overhearing their conversation, and realizes they are lovers. When Celestine steps off the porch to retrieve the dog, Wallace pops up long enough for Karl to know he is there.

Several months later, Wallace is at home during a difficult winter blizzard. The dog has returned to him and sleeps inside on his bed. She begins to whine and bark, and when Wallace finally gets up to see what has disturbed her, he finds Celestine. She is in labor and could not make it to the hospital on her own. Wallace helps her deliver the baby on his couch. She names the baby Wallacette.

Mary nicknames the baby Dot. Celestine chooses Mary and Wallace to be Dot’s godparents. Mary and Wallace compete to be the loudest at the baptismal ceremony, but Dot is the one who actually wins out: “Wallacette roared on and on as if she’d never stop” (174).

Celestine is enamored by her baby. Dot accompanies her to work at the butcher shop, and her love for Dot is unparalleled. One evening, while feeding the child, Celestine notices that a tiny spider has been making a web in Dot’s hair. Celestine decides not to destroy the delicate creation.