Inara has dinner with Daniel, intending to end their relationship and end his research into the sleeve. However, when he tells her that Mei Lien and Joseph had a son, she decides that it’s safe for Daniel to continue researching them, since it’s all after Campbell’s murder of the passengers on The Prince of the Pacific. They share personal details over dinner, and kiss before she boards the ferry back to the island. Daniel comes to see the hotel the following weekend and stays with Inara.

In July of 1887 Mei Lien wakes up. Joseph has let her sleep late because of her pregnancy. They have breakfast together and she reads him a letter from his sister in Tacoma, who announces her plans to visit in a few weeks. Mei Lien asks Joseph to have her delay her trip until after harvest. Since the islanders refuse to help Joseph with his farming, the previous year’s harvest was light, so they’ve struggled financially. 

Joseph surprises Mei Lien with a gift: Blue silk fabric and various silk embroidery thread for her to make something for herself and the baby. Mei Lien starts her daily chores, but her labor pains have begun and she is afraid to have the baby alone.

That evening, she goes to the water to pay her respects to her father and grandmother. She is surprised by Campbell, who arrives via boat. As she tries to hurry away, she is wracked by contractions. She demands to know what Campbell wants, and he tries again to get her to convince Joseph to sell the farm. She tells him to talk to Joseph himself and he leaves, disturbed by her moans and pain. 

Joseph finds her by the water and carries her back to the house. She gives birth in their bedroom, instantly in love with their son, Yan-Tao Kenneth McElroy—his Chinese name meaning “handsome,” and his white name in honor of his paternal grandfather.

Two weeks after Yan-Tao’s birth, Mei Lien hears voices in the yard. She sees her sister-in-law, Elizabeth, Elizabeth’s husband Marcus, and their twin daughters arriving in Campbell’s cart. Shocked, Mei Lien realizes Joseph forgot to write to have them delay their visit. 

Elizabeth initially mistakes Mei Lien for a servant, and surveys the house judgmentally. Elizabeth refuses to let her daughters have a pallet on the floor, so Joseph, Yan-Tao, and Mei Lien stay in the old cabin for the three-day visit. Mei Lien is exhausted by the judgment and discomfort; on the last day of the visit she’s excited to have her space back to focus on her family and to start working on the silk Joseph gave her. 

When she gets to the main house, there’s an immigration officer there investigating a report of an undocumented Chinese immigrant on the property. Joseph insists she’s his wife and that she was born in Seattle. The officer asks for proof, but Elizabeth intervenes, using her social knowledge to shame the man into leaving without having to see specific papers. Although Elizabeth and Mei Lien remain distant, their shared love for Joseph is a connecting force.

In mid-July, Inara works to clean up the landscaping in Rothesay. In a quest to save money wherever possible, she’s taken on all the trimming and lawn care. On her way to her house, she sees Tom, who invites her to dinner. 

As she digs in her garden, she gets a call from Daniel. He’s learned that bodies washed up on beaches following the eviction of all Chinese people from Seattle. She confesses that her family owns the shipping company involved, and promises to look into the files they haven’t been able to find. Daniel also tells her that the McElroys seem to disappear entirely after 1895. Inara worries that Campbell may have murdered the family to gain their land, especially since she can’t locate any deed transfers from Joseph to Campbell.

Seven years after Yan-Tao is born, he runs with his dog around the farm joyously. Joseph is in Port Townsend trading and getting supplies. Mei Lien watches Yan-Tao, fighting a constant pain in her belly she believes is related to the malady that killed her mother. In seven years, she and Joseph haven’t been able to have another child. After many unpleasant interactions with the islanders, Mei Lien and Yan-Tao have stayed on the farm but only socialize with Joseph’s family.

Yan-Tao runs into the house with a rabbit, begging to keep it as a pet. Mei Lien refuses, worried about the heartbreak he might have if the rabbit dies. Yan-Tao goes out, and Mei Lien continues working on her embroidery, creating a robe for Yan-Tao for when he grows up. He runs back in and hides in his room, the dog barking in alarm. When Mei Lien goes to talk to him, he tells her he’s killed the rabbit and they can eat it for supper.

There is a large storm that night, and Joseph doesn’t come home. Mei Lien feels called to the water for the first time since Yan-Tao’s birth. She goes out into the storm, feeling a sense of dread, but goes home and tries to embroider. She can’t manage it, and falls asleep on the living room sofa, waiting for Joseph. 

The next morning Campbell and the sheriff arrive to tell her the steamer Joseph was riding home on crashed, but his body wasn’t recovered. Mei Lien screams in agony. She aims the shotgun in her hand at Campbell, but is knocked to the ground by the sheriff, missing her shot. The sheriff refuses to arrest her even at Campbell’s urging. Yan-Tao comes outside when the men leave and collapses into his mother’s arms, sobbing in grief at the loss of his father.