Alone after Damienne's death, Marguerite cannot sleep, finds the cave cold and silent, and feels hollow without another human soul. The painted Virgin offers no comfort. She wanders the island aimlessly, abandons fishing and hunting, and ceases to care for herself, having performed those duties for Damienne, not herself.

As autumn yields to winter, Marguerite sinks into despair, neither praying nor eating. Snow seals her into the cave. She reflects that she is no saint or anchoress capable of finding meaning in solitude. Half-frozen and half-dreaming, she rouses, digs out of the drifts, and walks onto the frozen sea, intending to lie down in the snow and die peacefully.

A white fox appears, blocking her path. Marguerite speaks to it, asking if it is an angel, but receives no answer. Realizing her own clumsiness against the fox's lightness, she wakes from her trance and turns back. The fox darts ahead and leads her home to her cave.

At the cave, a white bear lunges at her. She narrowly escapes inside; the bear cannot fit through the narrow opening but tries for hours to dig in. The threat of being torn apart reawakens Marguerite's will to live. She loads her arquebus and waits.

When the bear returns, she fires blindly and only wounds his paw; he wrenches the gun from her hands. She quickly loads another arquebus and shoots him through the heart, killing him. Standing over him with awe rather than triumph, she cuts a cross into his body, skins him as Damienne taught her, drags the pelt inside, and eats his meat. She stores the rest, removes the carcass, and keeps a single claw as a relic, placing it on the Virgin's altar atop her mute instrument.