On Monday morning, Arrabelle Smalls, a local Black woman, waits on the Meechams’ back steps. When Bull exits and sees her, he thinks she is there to beg for money. He gives her a dollar before learning that she is the new maid. Lillian introduces everyone, and Bull leaves for the base.

Over coffee, Arrabelle tells Lillian about her late husband, Moultrie, who drowned when his shrimp boat broke apart, and about her son, Toomer, who sells flowers in town from a mule-drawn wagon. That afternoon, Toomer arrives to pick up Arrabelle in his wagon. Wanting Ben to learn more about being a “Southern man,” Lillian suggests he join Toomer on a Saturday fishing trip to learn about the Lowcountry. Toomer agrees.

On Saturday, Ben meets Toomer downtown and waits until he finishes selling flowers. Red Pettus, a local boy, mocks Toomer’s stutter and his limp and calls him racial slurs. Later, as they cross the bridge to the islands off the coast, Toomer tells Ben about the Pettus family’s prejudice, warns him to stay away from them, and says Red once stole his shotgun.

Toomer’s home is in the woods, a converted school bus on cinder blocks amid flowerbeds, beehives, and the 26 dogs that he has rescued over the years. He coaxes Ben to try raw oysters. Ben initially recoils but finds the ocean-like aftertaste pleasant. Toomer introduces Ben to Gray, the large, intimidating lead dog who dislikes white people. Ben nervously feeds him a biscuit.

That night, they boat to a remote barrier island and watch a giant sea turtle lay eggs under a full moon. Toomer steals a few of her eggs and leaves the rest to hatch. They prepare a meal of eggs, bacon, grits, and oysters by a fire. Ben calls it his best time in Ravenel and senses that the Lowcountry’s secrets lie in such experiences.

One Tuesday, Bull takes Ben and Matt to the base for haircuts. Ben protests but yields because Lillian isn’t present to run interference if Bull gets mad. At the PX barbershop, Bull orders a severe cut for Ben; when Ben tries to countermand it, the barber refuses, citing the colonel’s authority. Ben replies with sarcasm about Marine barbers’ intelligence and gets a terrible haircut. Matt receives an equally harsh cut.

That night, Ben announces he will finally beat his father in one-on-one basketball, a match that is a tradition in the family. At five o’clock, the family assembles in the driveway to watch. Lillian warns Ben not to respond to Bull’s taunts. When Matt asks to play, Bull sends him away; Matt runs inside crying.

The game is brutal: Bull relies on strength, Ben on speed. The score ties at nine to nine, then Ben crowds Bull, steals the ball, and sinks a jump shot for the win as Bull knocks him down. Ben has won against his father, the first time that has happened in anything, and the family celebrates.

Bull stands apart, seething. He insists on playing again and demands they continue. When Lillian accuses him of cheating, he shoves and kicks her as she retreats into the house. Ben steps in, and Lillian escapes inside. Bull then pelts Ben repeatedly in the head with the basketball, following him through the house, taunting him. Ben focuses on not crying. At Ben’s bedroom doorway, Bull declares Ben his favorite daughter; Ben retorts that this little girl just beat him. The door slams.

The family observes a tense, familiar quiet following Bull’s violence. At dinner, Bull reads the newspaper while the others keep silent; Ben avoids the meal, claiming illness.

Lillian checks on Ben later that night. She vows to leave Bull if he ever harms Ben like that again, but Ben dismisses the threat as empty—she has said it before. He says he prays for a war to take Bull away. Lillian insists Bull has been working on his temper and is improving.

Ben recounts past beatings and times when Bull struck Lillian. He produces a blood-stained T-shirt from two years earlier, when Bull bloodied her nose. Lillian flatly denies that Bull has ever hit her, and when Ben insists he witnessed it, she accuses him of exaggeration. Frustrated, he says she is making him a liar. Lillian says she stays with Bull for the children’s sake. Ben vows his own children will never endure such treatment. Lillian tells Ben he resembles his father in many ways, which pains him, then adds that Bull acts as he does out of love.

They hear the basketball on the driveway outside, and from the window, they watch Bull practicing. Lillian explains that Bull has never apologized to anyone and that his practicing is a nonverbal admission that the gap between himself and Ben is closing and that he is aging. She claims it is also his way of saying that he was wrong and is sorry.

Bull sits alone in his new office as commander of Squadron 367. Achieving his long-held dream leaves him with anticlimax rather than triumph. He dismisses the feeling, reminding himself he is a Marine, not a philosopher.

At 1230 hours, Bull delivers his first address to his squadron of fighter pilots. He calls himself the meanest, toughest, best commander in the Marine Corps, vows to make them the best pilots in the world, demands near-absolute obedience, warns against sycophants, and dubs them Werewolf Squadron 367.

Afterward, Bull meets privately with one of his pilots, Captain Johnson, a diminutive pilot with a high-pitched voice. Bull shares his theory that short men develop chips on their shoulders and become driven. Johnson agrees that this applies to him and says it pushes him to be the best pilot in the Corps. Bull relays that his predecessor ranked Johnson first but declares Johnson now second because Bull is the best. Johnson calmly disagrees, and Bull challenges him to a flight to settle it. After Johnson leaves, Bull reflects that Johnson, who is a great pilot, will never advance because of his stature and voice.

Ben and Mary Anne dread starting at John C. Calhoun High School, the first day at a new school, an annual trauma for military children. They have been to four new schools in the past four years, transferring every year. On the first day, Ben’s homeroom teacher nominates him for class president, as he is the only boy with the grades to qualify. He loses every single office, receiving no votes.

Two weeks later, Ben and Mary Anne see Red Pettus holding a Jewish boy, Sammy Wertzberger, in a headlock and forcing him to make degrading statements about Hitler. Mary Anne insists Ben intervene. Ben confronts Red, who releases Sammy and puts a switchblade to Ben’s throat. Mary Anne shouts to distract them, causing Red to hide the knife, and a brawl follows. Ben hits Red with a history book and accidentally breaks the nose of Red’s friend Lee Wicks with the same book. Sammy jumps on another boy’s back. Teachers break it up and take Ben to the principal’s office.

Principal John Dacus informs Ben that he broke Lee’s nose. Mary Anne and Sammy enter to explain that Ben was defending Sammy. Ben mentions Red’s knife, and Dacus decides to expel Red for the year, noting that Red previously cut another student and spent six months in a reformatory school. He suspends Ben, Mary Anne, and Sammy for one day and warns them to be careful after school.

That afternoon, Red, his older brother Mac, and two friends ambush Ben on the way home from school. Ben tells Mary Anne to run home and get their father. Bull and Virgil arrive in a station wagon, speed across the grass, and brutally beat Ben’s assailants. Bull jumps on the boys’ car, caving in the hood and roof, and warns them to leave his son alone.

That evening, Virgil and his wife Paige visit the Meechams. Bull tells Ben and Mary Anne that he is proud they defended Sammy. Lillian chides Ben for acting like a beast; Paige asserts that their children are wonderful and expresses her affection for them.

Bull believes that building rapport with the local civilian population is an important duty, and he begins eating breakfast daily at Hobie’s Grill, the town’s social hub. The regulars—Hobie Rawls, the mayor, an auto parts dealer, a postman, a doctor, a barber, and a lawyer—trade slow, steady banter and constant teasing.

A tough-talking woman, Bertha Grimmitt, enters and exchanges sharp insults with the group, particularly with the lawyer, Zell, whom she calls pretentious. She introduces herself to Bull as the town florist.

As Bull leaves, he jokes that grits explain why the South lost the war. Outside, Zell stops him to praise the Marine Corps, then reveals he lost a leg in a childhood boating accident and could not enlist during World War II. He advises Bull not to take Bertha seriously, then adds that she was once his wife.