After reading class, Minnow stays with Miss Bailey. While reading about a talking pig named Wilbur, Minnow hesitates, recalling the Community’s belief that talking animals were possessed by the Devil. Miss Bailey shares that her father frightened her with stories of a child-eating witch, but she overcame the fear by reading books about witches.

The next day, Minnow visits the jail library during rec time. Ms. Fitzgerald, the librarian, provides her with books including the Koran, the Book of Mormon, the Bible, and science fiction. Minnow reads a line about false prophets and thinks of her absent counselor, Dr. Wilson. She attempts to research a death related to him on the library computer but finds the results too broad.

Back in her cell, Minnow discovers Angel’s application for the Bridge Program, despite Angel claiming she would not apply. Reading Angel’s hopeful essay makes Minnow realize she cannot apply because she cannot tolerate the required self-reflection. When Angel catches her, she confronts Minnow about having a Bible, accusing her of becoming religious. Minnow defuses the tension with sarcasm. Angel reveals she hates Tracy because Tracy uses religion to hide her violent past. After their conversation, Minnow asks Angel to teach her about the universe, and that night Angel gives her a lecture on the Big Bang.

While lining up for reading class, Minnow sees Krystal harassing Tracy, who is reading her Book of Psalms. Minnow intervenes, and Krystal threatens her. Krystal pulls out a “lock sock”—a combination lock in a sock—and begins swinging it. Minnow bluffs, claiming her assault charge makes her more dangerous than Krystal, and for the first time perceives fear in Krystal’s expression. Krystal lunges, but Benny quickly appears and throws her to the ground.

Minnow and Krystal are both sentenced to three days in solitary. In the padded, silent cell, Minnow struggles to avoid replaying traumatic memories. She recalls a moment after her trial verdict when Philip Lancaster approached her with his jaw wired shut. Despite her having injured him, he gently wiped her tears with a Kleenex when she could not take it herself. This act of kindness confounds Minnow more than any cruelty.

To distract herself, she retreats to a memory from the autumn she turned 17. One night, Jude appeared at the Community’s edge, fleeing his drunken father. Recognizing their shared fear of being forever trapped, they went to the tree house. Minnow undressed, and they had sex for the first time. The act felt original and powerful, completely separate from the Community’s teachings. Walking back afterward, Minnow felt invincible, believing love made her strong.

The solitary cell door opens to reveal Dr. Wilson, who explains his weeks-long absence by saying he was researching prophecies. He shows Minnow the Prophet’s Book of Prophecies, recovered from the fire that destroyed the Prophet’s house. One prophecy justifies plural marriage; another commands the Prophet to marry Minnow to curb her rebellious mind.

Distraught, Minnow muses over the mundanity of the Prophet’s real name being Kevin. She expresses a wish that he had actually communicated with God so her suffering would have greater meaning. Dr. Wilson counters that her experience was special because she survived. Minnow compares her parents following the Prophet to moths flying into halogen lamps—drawn to a lie they cannot resist. When Minnow asks how one avoids becoming a moth, he tells her the answer is to stop relying on others for belief and to determine things for herself.

Released from solitary, Minnow appreciates the normal activity of general population. At lunch, Rashida asks about rumors that Minnow and Angel are romantically involved; Angel dismisses the gossip.

Minnow reflects that while the detention center is a prison, it is far better than the maidenhood room in the Community. She recalls lying there after her hands were amputated, overhearing the Prophet’s wives—including her younger sister Constance—agree that she should be grateful for a second chance. Minnow resolved to escape with Constance.

Later, after the others had gone to Prophet Hall, Minnow’s mother entered the room. Silently, she dressed Minnow in gloves, a jacket, and boots, then whispered for her to escape and save herself. Minnow forced herself through the quiet house and into the woods, leaving a trail of blood as she fled toward Jude’s cabin.

Minnow reflects on the callused hands of the Community women, shaped by wilderness labor. In a recent session, Dr. Wilson informed her that her mother now lives in a women’s home learning modern skills, and that the other women are in group homes and government housing. Minnow muses that their wilderness-hardened hands do not make sense in the modern world.

Dr. Wilson asks about her plans after release. Minnow says she has not applied for the Bridge Program and expects to end up in Billings. When he suggests she is giving up, she expresses anger that the police had her severed hands incinerated without her consent. Dr. Wilson responds that everyone loses something and most never get it back.

Two months before her parole hearing, Minnow joins a community service trip to glean pears from a wild orchard in the Rattlesnake Valley. At the orchard, the girls are chained together by a long cord. Minnow and Angel venture deep into the trees, where Minnow sees a gaunt, ragged figure and recognizes Jude. His nose is broken and he is starving. They kiss desperately. Jude explains that an unknown blond figure dragged him to safety after the fire, and he has been living in a cave ever since.

When the guards call the girls back, Jude wants Minnow to escape with him, but she hesitates. Her first thought is that she won’t be able to go to reading class. She tells him she must see her sentence through, realizing she has outgrown him. Jude cannot understand why she would choose prison over life with him, but Minnow tells him that just being together is no longer enough. As she is pulled away, Jude begs her to find him later at his cave near a heron pond.

Minnow is tormented by thoughts of Jude broken and alone in his cave. She recalls the night she escaped to his cabin after losing her hands. Jude found her and carried her the rest of the way. His father, Waylon, brought moonshine to disinfect her wounds, and when he submerged her stumps in it, Minnow screamed in agony. To distract her, Jude told her a story about catching wish-granting forest folk, promising his three wishes would be to restore her hands, wish them to a new home, and kill the Prophet.

The next day, Minnow woke with her stumps stitched. Jude was furious and quietly stated he would kill the Prophet himself. Minnow reflects that Jude still believed violence could be meaningful, whereas she had come to see brutality as “unremarkable” and “common.”

Dr. Wilson arrives at Minnow’s cell late at night and reveals a new theory: Her father, Samuel, may have killed the Prophet in order to become the new Prophet himself. He shows Minnow her father’s written prophecy as evidence; Minnow confirms the handwriting but finds the theory ridiculous.

Dr. Wilson explains that with the Prophet gone, many former members are defying his rules. He also points out inconsistencies in Kevinian theology, such as their God not being the creator of the universe—something Minnow admits she never questioned. Dr. Wilson concludes that the Prophet invented a religion but did a poor job.

Dr. Wilson visits again, looking exhausted. He explains he went to Deer Lodge prison because Minnow’s father attempted to die by suicide after learning he was a suspect. Her father survived but is not being charged; witnesses provided him with an alibi. Dr. Wilson adds that some witnesses claim to have seen a figure resembling Minnow watching from the trees the night of the fire.

He clarifies he does not think Minnow killed the Prophet, but believes she knows who did. Minnow considers confessing but refrains. She suggests the Prophet could have died by suicide; Dr. Wilson dismisses the idea. Privately, Minnow reflects that the Prophet, in a way, “created the weapon of his own demise” (317).

Dr. Wilson gives Minnow a used copy of Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891). He tells her that his son, Jonah, likes it. After he leaves, she is struck by a passage where Tess describes feeling her soul leave her body while looking at stars, and longs to see the stars again to test if she could feel the same.

After lights-out, Angel wakes Minnow with a key card obtained from Benny and leads her onto the jail roof to watch the Perseid meteor shower. Minnow instinctively ducks at the first meteor, recalling the Prophet’s teaching that they were bombs from the Gentiles. Angel explains that people invent answers because they would rather have a lie than an unanswerable question. She then reveals that everything—including humans—is made from elements cooked inside stars and released when they explode.

This explanation causes the Prophet’s restrictive worldview to lift from Minnow. She feels awe at the vastness of the universe, which does not make her feel small but allows her to appreciate its scale. She concludes that from this new perspective, it seems unimportant whether the universe was made by someone or “made itself.”