In early September 1969, more than a week after Chase assaulted her, Kya walks the beach clutching a letter from her editor inviting her to Greenville. She motors into the marsh and unexpectedly finds Tate on his research cruiser. Wanting to conceal her bruised face, she hesitates, but boards when he invites her to see a new microscope.

Inside the boat’s makeshift lab, Tate prepares slides and Kya marvels at microscopic life. As they drink coffee, she keeps her bruises turned away until he notices; she claims she ran into a door, and he quietly avoids pressing. Tate encourages her to meet the editor by bus from Barkley. They share a light moment tossing his red cap, but when Kya departs she reminds herself not to fall for Tate again.

Along the coast, gulls draw Kya to her beach. While feeding them, she sees Chase’s ski boat speed toward the channel to her shack. Realizing he will come looking for her, she flees, idles into a leafy backwater, and hides until his engine screams past. After darkness falls, she returns home by starlight.

Still afraid, Kya beds down on the beach among the gulls but can’t sleep. At dawn, isolated and shaken, she walks to the surf and imagines surrendering to the sea, pondering whether peace lies in death and who decides the time to die.