Daniel returns home and realizes Fermn or Daniels father has already opened the Sempere bookshop. After eating the toast, jam, and coffee left for him, Daniel goes downstairs, changes into his work apron, and retrieves the scrap of newspaper with Nuria Monforts address, placing it in his wallet as he looks for a mindless task to steady himself.

In the shop, Daniel works on the accounts while Fermn sorts parcels and Daniels father wrestles with a German catalog. The radio plays popular songs; Fermn jokes about Daniels anticipated meeting with Bea Aguilar and drifts into stories of Cuba, while Daniels father endures the music in silence.

Merceditas stops by from the Boquer a Market and brings apples, flirting awkwardly with Mr. Sempere and trading barbs with Fermn, whom she clearly resents as the shops new fixture. Their banter is interrupted by a commotion outside, and they listen as uneasy neighbors pass by muttering.

Don Anacleto Olmo arrives visibly shaken and announces the cause: during the night, the watchmaker Don Federico Flavi0 i Pujades was arrested after being caught performing in drag as Lady of the Curls at a tawdry venue. A tabloid reporter, Kiko Calabuig, rushed to exploit the scandal, and the case worsened when Inspector Fumero happened to be on duty.

Don Anacleto explains that Fumero ordered Don Federico thrown into a notorious basement cell among violent criminals as a lesson. Don Federico survives, but is brutally beaten and humiliated overnight; the revelation leaves the group stunned, Merceditas in tears, and Fermn recoiling at Fumeros name and cruelty.