Peggy goes with Gwen to see the film The Battle of the Somme. Oberon brings the papers along with an obituary for Mr. Hart, whose death Peggy thinks of as another casualty of the war. Tilda’s postcards become more disjointed and lost; she says it is an offense that she loves Hugo.

In February 1917, Jack is finally able to come home on leave. He is exhausted and sick with influenza. Maude falls ill, and Peggy keeps Lotte away while she nurses her sister.

Peggy continues to spend time with Bastiaan. They discuss Homer and Euripides. Peggy explains that Calliope is named after the ancient Greek muse of poetry. Peggy admits that reading Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, and Middlemarch, books by women, made her “want something [she] can’t really have” (259). Peggy thinks she will die a bindery girl.

St. Sepulchre’s has new graves for those killed in the war, including the grave of Mr. Owen. Peggy finds the beech tree near her mother’s grave, then finally looks at the gravestone and sees the inscription for Helen Penelope Jones, beloved mother, beloved friend. The engraving of an open book makes Peggy sob.

Peggy faints at the Press, ill with fever. Gwen nurses her. Tilda sends a postcard on the back of one of Iso’s pictures, a painting of Tilda in the hospital ward. Tilda mentions their wards are filling up with men who have the flu.

Peggy and Gwen discuss The Trojan Women, and Peggy recalls her mother’s opinion that Euripides made women powerful. Gwen suggests ways Peggy could get into one of the university libraries and borrow a book. Gwen doesn’t recognize Charlotte Brontë’s Villette, and Peggy is exasperated that Gwen gets to attend Somerville but is such a poor student. Gwen reminds Peggy that her studies are preparing her for little more than “[i]interesting conversations with men at dinner parties and women on committees” (271).

Gwen and Bastiaan visit while Maude cooks dinner, a dish Lotte taught her how to make using a small tune. Gwen says she talked with Miss Pamela Bruce about Peggy over tea. Miss Bruce suggested Peggy could be a good candidate for a scholarship. Peggy knows she has a scholar’s mind, but it’s a waste on a bindery girl. She accuses Gwen of having everything handed to her, but Gwen reminds Peggy that no one has yet handed her the vote. Peggy says people like her and Maude will never be given the vote because they don’t own property.

Peggy watches Maude and recalls how she dropped out of school, in part to earn income for the family, in part to help care for Maude. Gwen thinks Peggy has enough books on Calliope to start studying, and Bastiaan can tutor her in French. There will be an entrance exam and then another exam called Responsions, but Peggy wonders how she is supposed to learn Ancient Greek. Peggy realizes she has wanted this her whole life, and is now making excuses not to try.

Peggy and Maude start to sort through all the books on Calliope, finding the ones Peggy can use. She thinks of how her Ma loved reading and would ask Peggy questions. She finds a copy of Women’s Words.

Lotte comes over to cook and shows Maude how to catalogue the books. Peggy recalls that Lotte had been a librarian. Bastiaan still visits, but Peggy gets caught up in reading. Jack sends a letter describing the devastation he’s seen in Belgium. Bastiaan is upset and wonders what is left to go back to. Gwen advises Peggy to have a bit of fun now and then, but Peggy is determined to make the most of her studies.

Peggy starts to feel torn about spending time with Bastiaan when she wants to study. She is anxious about learning Ancient Greek. They make love. Bastiaan pours a libation of ginger beer onto the grave of a small child. Peggy wonders if he has yet found a resting place for all his dead.

Tilda is separated from Hugo. Her replacement is a woman named Vera, and Peggy remembers meeting her. Mrs. Stoddard, the forewoman, gives Peggy an alarm clock so she doesn’t miss work. Peggy understands that Mrs. Stoddard is encouraging and supporting her.

Tilda comes to visit on leave. She is shaky and drinking alcohol. She talks about the mutiny at Étaples and the Australian man who was shot because of it. There were severe repercussions after. Tilda still has to go back.

Ebeneezer gives Peggy a book that will help her study. Mrs. Hogg is unpleasant, and the word is that her husband is missing. Peggy snaps at Gwen when she is trying to help, but Gwen says she has arranged for Peggy to study at the Somerville library.

Peggy shares the poem “Death Among the Ears of Corn” with Bastiaan, and he agrees that the man who wrote the poem was not the same kind of German as those who sacked Louvain. Bastiaan says he wants to marry Peggy. She says, “I can’t be a wife and mother and a scholar as well” (307). She would have to choose. She turns down his proposal.

At the beginning of the January 1918 term, Peggy goes to the Somerville library. She has to explain herself to the porter, then to a nursing sister who bars her way on the stairs. Peggy refuses to let the other woman intimidate her: “I was not alone, I realised, in wanting something I was not born to have” (312).

The librarian, Miss Garnell, recognizes Peggy and welcomes her. Peggy is offended at the thought of being Gwen’s good cause, but Miss Garnell suggests that Peggy is adaptable. Miss Garnell has arranged a bay in the English literature section for Peggy to read in and hands her a book: Jane Eyre. Peggy reflects on how the books are all identical when they leave the bindery, but as soon as someone cracks a spine, a book takes on a character of its own. Peggy isn’t allowed to check out the books, so Miss Garnell invites Peggy to bring Maude with her when she studies.

Maude comes with Peggy to Somerville, and their twinship is a source of humor for the officers recuperating there. Maude folds while Peggy starts on Greek grammar. Maude gets bored and goes to sort returns with Miss Garnell. Miss Garnell praises Maude’s efficiency.

Gwen tries to pull Peggy out of the library to celebrate women getting the vote, but Peggy retorts that she still can’t vote.

Peggy sits for the entrance exam. Gwen has coached her not to be creative in how she answers the questions, but Peggy isn’t happy with her answers that seem to echo other people’s ideas. She rewrites her responses and is thrilled to think that “someone would read what [she] wrote, and […] they would consider it” (329). Gwen advises Peggy to enjoy herself before she starts studying for Responsions.

Peggy receives an offer for a full scholarship from Somerville. Peggy expects Maude to be upset, but Miss Garnell says Maude is adaptable, too.

Tilda writes that Peggy’s mother would be proud. Gently, she tells Peggy that Ma used to say she feared Peggy spent so much time looking back for Maude, she might never move forward. She also said Peggy might keep Maude from moving forward. Jack comes home on leave, and Maude spends time with him.

As Peggy returns to her study of the Odyssey in Greek, Miss Garnell points out how different the many translations are. As an example, she references the servant women Odysseus demanded be killed because they had slept with the men who had tried to court his wife. She reminds Peggy, “The words used to describe us define our value to society and determine our capacity to contribute” (336). Peggy digs into her studies. She comes across Bastiaan on a walk and misses him.