Damienne, gentle rather than reproachful, helps Marguerite gather Auguste's torn body and rebury him. Marguerite piles granite stones over the grave as a protective monument. Meanwhile, Damienne skins the slain bear, salvaging the pelt for warmth and cutting meat to roast. Marguerite refuses to eat the bear or sleep beneath its fur, repulsed by the creature that devoured Auguste. Overnight, wolves cross the ice and devour the bear's carcass, taking the meat too.

Marguerite sinks into despair, sleeping for days wrapped in Auguste's cloak. Cold, chilblains, and decay assail them; even the painted Virgin statue cracks and sheds gold. Damienne sees grace where Marguerite sees none. When Marguerite cries out in nightmares, Damienne reminds her of her unborn child, recalling her promise to Auguste to defend their son.

Hunger drives Marguerite to take up Auguste's boots, cloak, and arquebus and hunt, despite Damienne's protests that it is unwomanly. She witnesses wolves bring down a doe and considers stealing the kill, but the wolves' yellow eyes deter her. Repeated hunts fail because deer flee at the sound of the gun.

Remembering the Montforts' hunts with beaters, Marguerite scatters their last wheat outside the cave to lure deer. On the third day, six deer appear; she shoots a slender buck, slits his throat, and she and Damienne butcher the carcass, feasting on roasted venison and bone broth. The meat strengthens them, but Marguerite mourns that Auguste did not live to share it.

Storms return, the deer flee across the frozen sea, and starvation looms again, with only Damienne's quince jam left. Marguerite's body wastes; she reflects on Claire with newfound understanding of necessity, no longer resentful. Then she discovers Claire's gold signet ring has slipped from her bony finger into the snow, lost forever despite searching—a final severing from her former life.