Moshe Malachi begins the painful task of closing the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, planning to rent out the first floor and keep living upstairs. In the basement he finds Chona’s small butter barrel, now filled with tiny toys she saved for Dodo and neighborhood children, and he breaks down sobbing while Nate and Addie quietly keep working.

Moshe reflects on the conflicting accounts of Chona’s death: Doc Roberts claims a Black boy attacked her, but Moshe believes that is a lie and fears challenging Doc would draw police attention and expose Chona’s accusations about Doc and the Klan. He also notices how grief and racial rules around touch and intimacy isolate everyone, and he feels physical chest pain as he thinks of Chona’s bold kindness and his own emptiness without her.

Moshe tries to discuss arranging a visit to Dodo at Pennhurst, but Nate avoids the topic and Addie urges Moshe to let Nate act in his own time. As they continue packing, a black sedan arrives and Isaac comes into the store, insisting Moshe see something. Isaac throws down a surprise: tiny infant-sized leather pants marked with a Star of David, and Malachi appears at the top of the stairs—having come in person.

In the back room, Moshe, Isaac, and Malachi drink tea and catch up. Malachi reveals he fled Europe quickly and has decided to stay in America because “there is trouble back home,” deepening Moshe’s worry about his mother and the danger facing Jews abroad. Isaac then pushes to speak with Nate and Addie about what happened to Chona, despite Moshe’s fear that it will bring trouble.

Downstairs, Isaac questions Nate and tries to pay him for helping Moshe’s family, but Nate refuses, revealing that taking money from a stranger once “cost [him] eleven years.” Nate also rejects Isaac’s faith in lawyers and “white folks’ laws,” arguing any legal win can be overturned by men like Doc Roberts and would trap them in dependency. Nate tells Isaac that only one person besides Dodo saw what Doc did and has told only Moshe; he also confirms Chona was alive briefly afterward and asked after Moshe and Dodo. Isaac shifts tactics and asks about Bernice, learning she helped hide Dodo when the state came; Nate directs Isaac to go to her with help, warning she dislikes talk, and Isaac decides he will go to listen.