Nuria recalls the moment Julián Carax learns in the Aldaya crypt that Penélope is dead and their child is gone. Stunned, Julián abandons Nuria and returns to her apartment, where he burns his own novels in the boiler and removes the rest from her shelves. At the publishing house, Álvaro Cabestany reports that a man calling himself Laín Coubert tried to buy all of Carax’s stock and learned where it was stored; Nuria steals the office copies and hides them in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books.

That night the Pueblo Nuevo warehouse burns, destroying tens of thousands of books. The watchman Lluís Carbó tells Nuria that a burned man was found alive; at Hospital del Mar she recognizes Julián, barely surviving and admitted under the name Miquel Moliner. Nuria visits daily, learns to care for his wounds, and realizes he is kept alive by hatred rather than hope. Months later, he finally speaks only to tell her, “Leave me,” and after eleven months she takes him home.

During the war years, Nuria nurses Julián back to partial strength as he refuses touch and believes he has become his own monster, Laín Coubert. Julián begins disappearing at night, returning with money and jewelry and leaving behind signs of violence; rumors spread of a faceless vandal who hunts down and burns Julián Carax’s remaining books across Barcelona and beyond. Letters from France addressed to Laín Coubert arrive, and Julián’s absences lengthen as he tracks down copies to destroy.

Nuria befriends Julián’s estranged father, Mr. Fortuny, who longs for news of his son and suspects Inspector Fumero is behind the book burnings. Nuria lies to spare Fortuny, visits him regularly, and learns from a doctor that the hatter is dying of loneliness; Julián admits he has watched his father from afar but refuses to let him see what he has become. Fortuny dies before the war ends, and Nuria hears that Fumero has survived by shifting allegiances and now serves the victors, executing former allies.

With poverty tightening, Nuria invents a lawyer, José María Requejo, and tricks Sophie Carax in Bogotá into sending monthly funds by claiming Fortuny’s properties are legally being transferred to Julián. Years pass in fearful quiet until a young investigator comes asking for “Miquel Moliner,” convincing Nuria that the net is closing again. She moves Julián into Fortuny’s old apartment on Ronda de San Antonio, visits only at night via rooftop routes, locks him in for safety, and begins sending baiting letters to the Spanish consulate in Paris—believing it is only a matter of time before someone like Fumero finds them.