Two spirits who died nearby appear before Jill: a Black trapper named William and a cheery white football fan named Clyda. Clyda died in a car accident while going to buy chips on game day, and William died of illness in a lean-to while journeying to Louisiana to meet his sister. Jill recognizes both spirits as people who have not been elevated, though out of politeness, she chooses to listen to their stories of unfortunate suffering. William and Clyda keep trying to ask Jill to tell them her story so that they can stop talking about themselves, but when she fails to speak up, they elaborate on their suffering. Jill suspects that the two are trying to recruit her to join their company. Nevertheless, she cannot help recalling her death in a car explosion. 

She’s suddenly thrust into the mind of a man on the day of her death. The man suspects that people despise him on sight alone, which makes him hate them back. He has been working on a bomb to take revenge against a police officer who arrested him once. Jill realizes that this was what caused her car to explode. The man’s name is Paul Bowman. He intended to kill Lloyd, not Jill. Believing he has succeeded, he fantasizes about having a family that respects him.

Seeing inside Bowman’s mind, Jill feels like she can make sense of him. She feels she cannot judge his thoughts, feelings, and actions because he is an “inevitable occurrence.” He was predisposed from birth to react to the world in a particular way, which limited his ability to make different choices. If he could choose to live his life differently, then he wouldn’t be Paul Bowman, but someone else. Jill probes this condition of existence and realizes that there is no way to alter anyone’s predispositions. She likens Paul to an incarcerated person and knows that while she cannot liberate him, she can give him comfort. This is the foundation of her directive from God. Bowman, she remembers, was her first charge.

Jill is compelled to return to Boone. Boone acknowledges his earlier rudeness. Jill notes that Boone has been accused of affecting the weather and stresses that he cannot avoid these accusations as he nears death. Jill starts to articulate the same insights she received while inhabiting Bowman’s mind, with the hope that these insights will move Boone to elevation. Boone understands nothing from her monologue and is instead distracted by a bonfire smell, which marks the arrival of the spirit of Boone’s father, who encourages him to admit his regrets. Boone is unsure if his father is a real spirit or another figment of his mind, but he recognizes his father’s many idiosyncrasies, from his missing index finger to his tendency to say “ast” instead of “ask.” Jill confirms that he is real.

Boone is moved by his father’s presence, as well as his admission that he had been too harsh with Boone. Boone’s father senses he is afraid, but Boone is reticent to explain why because he fears vulnerability and judgment. Boone’s father asks Jill what she thinks of Boone. Though Jill speaks well of Boone, Boone’s father asks him to explain what happened at Aarhus. Boone claims not to know what he is talking about, which prompts his father to become bigger and more intimidating as he demands that Boone tell the truth. Boone refuses to be cowed by his father and thinks again of how he improved his parents’ lives. In shame and defeat, Boone’s father leaves. 

Boone tells Jill that “Aarhus” refers to a keynote speech he’d given to the International Society of Petroleum Professionals in Denmark in 1977. Boone remembers a colleague named Ed Dell, who helped him write the Aarhus speech. Dell’s linguistic gifts enabled him to strengthen the speech’s argument. The speech was widely influential, based on the response he’d gotten from the other society members, the government’s decision to double down on fossil fuel-based energy sources, and his enemies’ hyperbolic claims that the speech had been irresponsible. As he recalls the speech, Boone feels proud.

Jill is unfamiliar with the speech since 1977, which was after her death. She explains she died in a car explosion when she was 22, married, and working as a phone operator and part-time waitress. When she describes the circumstances of her death, Boone thinks again of Dell. Several years earlier, Dell told Boone he regretted his role in crafting the Aarhus speech. After ignoring Dell’s letter on the matter, Boone received an expletive-filled voice message from Dell reiterating his regret in furious terms. Boone mocked his guilt by thanking him for his help, without which the speech wouldn’t have been possible. His response filled Dell with grief, and he moved to Mexico, where he experienced drug addiction and suicidal ideation. Boone calls Dell “pathetic.” His wife returns to place clean towels in the room, but the stack falls onto a mess of medication bottles and pajamas.

A spirit cries out, summoning Jill away from the room. Jill finds an old woman underneath the house. She brings two questions from the Frenchman. The first is, “Are you ready?” (94), which confuses Jill, but the woman has no further context for the question. Instead, the woman tells Jill the secret to a long marriage: regular sex with anyone willing to have it with her. She explains that her husband Joe also used to rape her, which scandalizes Jill. Despite attempts to fight the thought away, Jill remembers her own passionate marriage with Lloyd. The old woman relays the Frenchman’s second question: Is Boone still alive? When Jill confirms he is, the old woman tells her to expect the Frenchman’s return with a guest. After the woman leaves, Jill warns herself that the more she tries to remember Lloyd, the more she will remember other parts of her life, and she will eventually become herself again.

When Jill emerges from the ground, she encounters the Mels once more. They speak resentfully of Boone and mock Jill’s life and death, pointing out that she never made any impact on the world. When they reference the possibility that Jill had been pregnant when she died, Jill kicks at them. They continue to mock her elevation, as well as her argument for comforting people. They remain confident of their claim on Boone.

Jill returns to Boone, who is reliving the memory of watching a protest against his company from his high-rise corporate office. He anticipates that the Frenchman is approaching with his guest, which Jill takes as a sign that Boone’s death is very close. When she asks him what he thinks about becoming elevated, he dismisses it again.

The Frenchman returns with an Indian man named Mr. Bhuti. Bhuti narrates how he, his wife, and his mother died because of a drought in their village in Rajasthan. The Frenchman directly connects this drought to the Aarhus speech. Boone defiantly insults the Frenchman, who tries to claim moral superiority over Boone. They are interrupted by Viv, whom they hear speaking to Boone’s daughter, Julia, on the phone. She tells her to hurry up to the house while there is still time. The three spirits are moved by Viv’s love for Boone.