In Penang, 1921, Lesley arranges a small farewell dinner for Willie, inviting her brother Geoff and his wife Penelope, and—pointedly—the Chinese lawyer Peter Ong, whom Robert had once mentored. Robert questions her choice but says nothing more. Lesley descends in full Straits Chinese kebaya attire, the same outfit from a remembered photograph, drawing admiring remarks. During dinner, she observes Robert's intimate manner with Peter Ong, Geoff's unhappy marriage, and Willie's gaze fixed on Gerald, while feeling a sharp longing for Arthur after eleven years of silence.

Late that night, Lesley joins Willie on the verandah. They speak of Verlaine and Rimbaud, and Lesley voices the truth she has perceived: she, Willie, and Robert each loved someone they could not openly have. Willie warns that writing her affair with Arthur would ruin her marriage, but Lesley reveals she would never use Arthur's real name and challenges Willie's silence about homosexual affairs in his fiction. She tells him she has decided to accompany Robert to the Karoo.

Lesley reflects on her affair with Arthur—how secrecy preserved it, how grief over his departure to China was tinged with relief, and how she once tried to write their story but tore the pages up. Speaking of Sun Wen had been her covert way of keeping Arthur alive in memory.

At breakfast, Robert announces he intends to go to South Africa alone, leaving Lesley to keep Cassowary House. Lesley refuses and insists on going with him. They sell the house and pack their belongings, including the painted hawk door. At a final farewell party in a Leith Street mansion, Lesley watches Noel Hutton boldly claim a Chinese woman on the dance floor; she kicks off her broken-heeled shoe and dances barefoot with him. The Hamlyns leave Penang before Noel's wedding.