Three Belgian women start work at the bindery. Lou and Aggie, who were Peggy’s classmates at St. Barnabas, take on two trainees, while Lotte is seated between Peggy and Maude as they fold pages from Lorna Doone. Maude demonstrates to Lotte how to fold the pages, and Peggy briefly feels left out. Lotte says little but that she is from Louvain. She seems to get along better with Maude.

One day, when Maude slips out of her rhythm and begins folding her own designs on a page, Lotte gently stops her. Maude doesn’t protest, and Peggy thinks, “I felt more redundant than ever” (90). Tilda writes that Peggy could volunteer in hospitals, which are filling up with wounded from Ypres.

Peggy approaches the Examination Schools to inquire about volunteering as a nurse. She has folded exam papers for the students and dreams of writing an exam herself and wearing the black gown of a scholar. She likes history, English, and the classics, but cannot make sense of Ancient Greek, though she likes the stories. Although she works at the Press, Peggy doesn’t feel part of the University; she thinks she and her fellow employees at the Press “were just part of the machinery that printed their ideas and stocked their libraries” (93).

Peggy walks in with another woman who is confident and well-dressed. They register with a clerk who says there is a need for volunteers who can read and write letters. The other girl identifies herself as Gwen. She is a student at Somerville and befriends Peggy.

Rosie offers to have Maude spend Saturday evenings with her and Mrs. Rowntree while Peggy volunteers. Maude suggests Peggy read Jane Eyre aloud to the wounded soldiers, which was Peggy’s “first grown-up book” (99). On their first shift, Peggy and Gwen are assigned to two young men who have lost their sight. Gwen settles with the lieutenant, and Peggy helps the private, whose name is Will. The Matron asks if the girls can visit more frequently. The next time she leaves, Peggy gives Maude a cake and some papers to fold but worries about leaving her alone.

Gwen writes a letter for her lieutenant and teases him about being more affectionate with his sweetheart. Peggy feels jealous when Gwen heads home to her rooms at Somerville. At Calliope, Peggy is frightened when she smells something burning, but finds that Maude merely burned the pot when she was trying to cook an egg.

Peggy resents that she will have to give up volunteering because of Maude, but Lotte offers to walk with Maude on Saturday so Peggy can return to the hospital.

Gwen tells Peggy that the university in Louvain, where Lotte worked, was burned down: “All those books […] It would have gone up like a bonfire” (111). Peggy returns to find Lotte folding papers with Maude and thinks that Maude quiets something in Lotte. The patient Peggy is working with, Will Dawes, recovers his sight and says he’ll be sent back to France.

It is a still autumn day, and Peggy observes the reflection of their boat in the water of the canal. November 7th has been declared Belgian Day, and there is a celebration, but another woman has news that her nephew died at Ypres and is bitter about helping the Belgians.

Gwen meets Maude and learns she can tell the sisters apart by their eyes. Peggy waits while Gwen steps into Somerville, which Peggy has imagined walking into “hundreds of times” (117). Gwen invites Peggy to a tea party for the Belgians, which will be hosted at Somerville College. Peggy doesn’t want to go to be an extra set of hands, but Miss Bruce invites Peggy as a guest. Peggy dresses up with some of Tilda’s things.

Peggy tries to soak in everything about Somerville. She is worried she stands out “like bad poetry in leather binding” (123). She is introduced to Vera Brittain, the girl she had seen in Mr. Hart’s office at the Press. Peggy thinks of how she left school years ago to earn money working at the Press, insisting she had to be with Maude.

She walks into the library and wonders how many books she’s folded there. She slips a small volume into her pocket. She helps serve refreshments with Miss Bruce, who asks how Peggy likes her work. Peggy admits it is frustrating not to be able to read the books and quotes a Coleridge poem. Walking home, she realizes she’s stolen Abbott and Mansfield’s A Primer of Greek Grammar. Jack visits to say he’s being trained as a sniper.

Lotte continues to spend time with Maude while Peggy volunteers. Peggy is assigned to the officer’s ward along with Gwen. She sits with a Belgian, Bastiaan, who is covered with a white sheet, only his right eye visible. Peggy thinks of him as an “invisible man” (131). He speaks to Peggy in English, since her French is poor. Lotte cooks dinner for the girls one night, and Peggy notes how Lotte watches Maude with sorrow and longing.

The hospitals fill with the wounded from Ypres, and more men are asked to enlist. Someone leaves a white feather on Ebeneezer’s repair bench. Peggy is folding an Oxford pamphlet, Thoughts on War, written by an Oxford professor, Gilbert Murray, who argues that war makes a band of brothers between the working and privileged men. Murray writes, “Thank God we did not hate each other as much as we imagined” (138). Peggy thinks about how working men are signing up to enlist even though they do not have the right to vote. The girls take the bus past the barracks and see Ebeneezer in the recruitment line. He is rejected because of his poor eyesight.

Tilda sends a letter. She has been sent to Étaples, France, but part of what she writes is blacked out by censors. Peggy visits her Invisible Man and thinks how Ma liked Euripides best of the Greek dramatists because, she said, he “gives the women a voice […] Makes them powerful” (142).

At the Press, they print a farewell for the controller, Mr. Hart. As she binds the pages, Peggy thinks about how her stitching will outlast everyone who has signed their name.

Tilda writes about her work with the VAD. She sends the girls a parcel of things she can’t use, including red lipstick. Peggy writes a letter to Bastiaan’s family for him. There are continuing murmurs of resentment toward the Belgian refugees.

Peggy is starting to like Gwen. Somerville College is requisitioned for a hospital, and the students are moving to Oriel. Peggy helps Bastiaan move, and his belongings include an English translation of Baudelaire and a muffler, both items she gave him.

Peggy attends the wedding of Mr. Owen to his sweetheart, Esme Nicoll, and enjoys the moment. Tilda sends another letter, heavily censored. Her work as a nurse is beginning to wear on her. Peggy tells Maude to fold more stars to send to Tilda.

Peggy now gets to visit Somerville as a hospital volunteer. Part of the bandages are removed from Bastiaan’s face, but some of his features have been fully reconstructed, like his lips. Bastiaan is happy to see her. He asks her not to read him the poems of Rupert Brooke, saying his war has not been full of glory. He spots the Greek primer that Peggy says she needs to return to the library. He asks if she can borrow Rudyard Kipling.

Peggy coaxes the librarian, Miss Garnell, into loaning her a copy and watches as she writes Peggy’s name in the Somerville library ledger. Peggy thinks it is “[e]vidence. Of something. Not much. But something” (159). Peggy reads a poem to Bastiaan and is struck by the lines “If you can keep your head when all about you / Are losing theirs” (160). Bastiaan jokes that he kept his head, then weeps.

Tilda visits on leave. Peggy thinks Tilda’s face is still beautiful, “but the lines were deeper and the shadows darker” (162). Peggy is proud that Gwen is impressed by Tilda. Tilda leaves Maude an apricot dress. Peggy notes that Tilda is drinking whiskey.

Peggy goes with Gwen, Tilda, and Maude to see a movie, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and Gwen and Tilda note the difference in their upbringing. They see a soldier whose legs have been amputated and give him money. Tilda invites Gwen for Sunday dinner and offers to cook. Gwen is surprised that they live on a boat, and it is full of books. They enjoy the dinner, and Peggy thinks, “We were celebrating […] [t]he unexpected joy of ordinary mishap and easy friendship” (170).

Rosie mentions that her letters from Jack are heavily censored, and Tilda shares her plan of using the French postal system rather than army mail. Tilda’s friend, the artist Iso Rae, assists. Tilda reads from her recent letter, which describes the slaughter at Ypres because so many of the generals don’t know what they’re doing. Tilda leaves the girls some postcards, makeup, and jewelry when she goes.