At lunch, Minnow meets Tracy and Rashida. When Rashida asks about her hands, Minnow bluntly states her “father cut them off with a hatchet” (78), which makes Rashida laugh appreciatively. Tracy invites Minnow to youth group, prompting Angel to deliver a rant against God. Later in their cell, Angel argues that science now explains the world better than belief in God.

In flashback, Minnow recalls the Prophet teaching the Community that God’s real name is Charlie, a human born in 1776 who gained divine power after looking into a magical stream, and who is reborn into every generation. The Prophet claimed to have once met an incarnation of Charlie—a 75-year-old janitor in Utah—who transferred prophetic power to him by touch.

The day before leaving for the wilderness, the Prophet announced that God had just died but would be reborn, and suggested Minnow might someday have the honor of giving birth to Him. Years later, when Minnow questioned why they did not live in the lowlands where God walked the earth, the Prophet told her she was free to leave—a statement she knew was a lie because of what happened to Bertie.

Each morning, Minnow wakes before dawn, a habit left over from the Community. At six o’clock, the lights come on, then the girls shower. Minnow notes that her scars from Community punishment are on display during that time; however, she sees similar scars on all the girls.

In their cell, Angel educates Minnow about prison life, describing the various cliques and warning her to stop talking like she is from “a time capsule” (92). When Minnow admits she does not know any swear words, Angel writes a list and teaches her to pronounce them. Angel also teaches coded prison language, like the word “Britney” for an inmate that is interested in sex and a “Tricia” for someone who wants to trade something. Minnow makes a joke about not having fingers to signal if she is gay.

Angel predicts Minnow will join the Christian girls, whom she dismisses as insincere, using religion as a “strategy” to impress the parole board.

Minnow reflects that jail is punishment, which she deserves for what she did to Philip, but it is not justice or rehabilitation. She wonders how everyone in the Community went from farming and praying to hurting and killing.

In flashback, she recalls her childhood in a trailer park before the Community. The neighborhood children played on a dirt lot behind the trailers, where an apple tree grew. The day the Prophet first visited, Minnow was trying to reach an unripe apple on the tree. A stranger picked it and handed it to her, then ate it whole while staring at her. Her father appeared on the porch and told her this man was “holy beyond understanding” and that he should be believed and followed , “[b]ecause he spoke to God” (99).

At lunch with Angel and Rashida, Minnow learns that other inmates avoid her because her Velcro shoes mark her as dangerous. Minnow reflects that she is mostly alone with her memories during the day.

In flashback, Minnow recalls a lesson by the pond when she was eight or nine. She repeatedly interrupted the Prophet to ask why reading, writing, and painting were forbidden. The Prophet explained his cosmology: The sky is God’s canvas, rain is God’s tears, darkness means God is sleeping, and lightning represents His bad dreams. When Minnow asked what the stars are, the Prophet warned her against doubt and claimed they are God’s eyes watching while He sleeps.

Minnow pointed out the contradiction with his teaching that God is a boy walking the earth. Enraged, the Prophet grabbed Minnow’s younger sister Constance and shook her, warning of the consequences for disbelief. He released Constance and told Minnow the answer to all questions is “Always God.”

Angel and Minnow go to the TV room during recreation time. Angel puts on a science program showing Earth from space, which amazes Minnow. Rashida snatches the remote and they grapple over it, rapidly flipping channels. Minnow suddenly sees her father, Samuel Bly, on a news report about the Kevinian cult trials. The broadcast details multiple charges against him, identifies the Prophet as Kevin Bilson, and describes Samuel as his second-in-command. The report shows an aerial image of the snow-covered Community, including a noose hanging from a tree, which horrifies Minnow.

Afterward, a tall inmate named Krystal approaches Minnow, touching her hair and chest. Frozen with fear, Minnow is reminded of the Prophet. Angel intervenes, punching Krystal in the face, then beating her brutally when Krystal taunts her about killing her uncle. Watching Angel’s calm demeanor during the assault, Minnow understands how Angel could have killed her uncle. Angel tells the guard that Krystal tripped.

After the fight, the other inmates are even more afraid of Angel. Minnow asks why the guards let Angel get away with things. Angel explains she has been in the detention center since she was 12, longer than anyone else. One of the guards, Benny, effectively raised her.

Dr. Wilson visits and warns Minnow to be careful with “lifers,” revealing that Angel is serving a long sentence for murder. His warning makes Minnow realize the outside world is not necessarily safe either.

Wilson tries to ask about Philip, but Minnow refuses. He asks about her hands instead, and she agrees to tell the story.

In flashback, purple smoke from the Prophet’s chimney signaled he was receiving a prophecy. He gathered the Community and announced he would take another wife—Minnow. When he asked if she rejoiced, she said no and slapped him. Enraged, the Prophet ordered her father to sequester her until the wedding.

Dr. Wilson asks about Minnow’s father’s reaction. She says he was like the Prophet’s “puppet” and that she hates him. Wilson warns that hate hurts the hater and writes an affirmation on a Post-it note which reads, “anger is a kind of murder you commit in your heart” (127).

Wilson reveals he interviewed Minnow’s father, who is delusional and was thrown out of court for shouting in tongues. However, he wanted Wilson to tell Minnow how sorry he is for everything. Minnow is shattered by the apology. She recalls conflicting images of him—swinging the hatchet, but also his earlier life gambling at a greyhound track, and his gradual transformation from Sam into the “sober” yet righteous Deacon Samuel.

In flashback, Minnow recalls her mother becoming silent and withdrawn during her pregnancy with Constance. When Constance was born in the Community, their mother passed out, and Minnow was the first to hold the baby. She felt an immediate, powerful bond with Constance and resolved to protect her.

Minnow keeps her long hair because that is how Jude knew her. She is enrolled in a reading class and goes to meet the teacher, Miss Bailey, who greets her warmly and explains she does not read students’ files in order to give them a fresh start. Directed to a computer for a reading assessment, Minnow cannot read the questions on the screen.

Looking out the classroom window, she sees a residential street—her first view of the outside world—separated by a high fence topped with barbed wire. She admits to Miss Bailey that she cannot read. Miss Bailey invites Minnow to listen as she reads a story aloud. Listening reminds Minnow of Bertie and provides a rare moment of peace.

Rashida and Tracy distribute donated popsicles to the inmates. Angel claims they are a “bribe” from the warden to prevent the riots more common in warmer weather. The realization that it is springtime makes Minnow deeply miss Jude.

In flashback, Minnow recalls her early friendship with Jude during their first spring together. He would leave her notes—first drawings, then the written words “Miss you”—and brought her a Twinkie. Together they built a tree house in a large larch tree. Inside, Jude kept a wedding photo of his parents and speculated they had fled to the woods because their families disapproved of their interracial marriage. He played guitar and sang a song his mother had taught him, pulling Minnow into a dance. Watching him, she experienced romantic feelings for the first time—powerful but confusing, clashing with her negative perception of marriage from the Community. She reflects that they never got to do many things because they assumed they had forever.

Minnow reflects that before the Prophet’s decree, she believed no one would marry her because she was considered tainted by the outside world, unlike her pure sister, Constance. She recalls the Prophet’s subtle, unwanted touching throughout her childhood.

In flashback, after she slapped the Prophet, her father took her to the locked maidenhood room in their attic. She asked if he believed God commanded the marriage. He told her the Prophet had “seen [evidence of] the Devil in [her] eyes” (149)—recalling the Prophet’s story about his own father having the Devil’s mark and the implication that the Prophet had killed him with a hatchet.

After everyone was asleep, Minnow tore the plastic from the window and climbed onto the roof, understanding she was leaving for good. As she climbed down, she slipped and fell. Deacon Karl, who was sneaking a cigarette, saw her. She ran into the forest as he approached.

In the present, Dr. Wilson asks why Minnow did not run away before. She explains it was a false sense of invulnerability—of being made of “God-stuff”—that kept her there.

The flashback continues: Minnow fled into the woods with deacons in pursuit. Realizing she was leading them toward Jude’s house, she changed course toward their tree house. She hid in the larch tree, but a young deacon named Abel spotted her braid hanging down, pulled her out, and pinned her to the ground. The other deacons, including her silent father, arrived, and she was marched back to the courtyard where the entire community was waiting.

The Prophet confronted her, and she shouted back. Enraged, he declared that if Minnow was incapacitated, her 12-year-old sister Constance would take her place as his bride. The crowd gasped. The Prophet gave a hatchet to her father and commanded him to take her hands. The deacons wrestled Minnow to the floor and pinned her down. Her father hesitated, and Minnow saw his struggle with the choice in his eyes. The Prophet then yelled at him, and her father shut his eyes and brought the hatchet down on her wrists.