On Memorial Day 1936, Pottstown’s city council meeting is paired with the John Antes Historical Society’s noisy band ceremony at the dilapidated Antes House, which is cleaned up for white civic pageantry and otherwise used as a neglected refuge by Chicken Hill residents. City council chairman Gus Plitzka loathes the ritual and arrives in pain, his big toe badly swollen.

Privately, Plitzka’s bigger problem is financial: after buying the Clover Dairy he came up $1,400 short, took a loan arranged through his cousin Ferdie, and learned too late the lender is Philadelphia mobster Nig Rosen. Rosen has raised the terms to extortionate interest and threatened Plitzka with a gun, leaving Plitzka desperate for money and afraid of public humiliation.

Plitzka corners Doc Roberts at the Antes House and demands immediate help for his toe, pulling Doc outside to look. Doc agrees to fetch something after the band’s rehearsal, while internally unraveling over Chona Malachi’s death and the mezuzah pendant Doc impulsively took from her during the “accident.” Afraid to mail it or throw it away, Doc has carried it to the parade intending to abandon it near Chicken Hill.

As Black residents pass toward the Hill, Plitzka makes racist remarks and probes Doc about Chona, complaining about her letters to the newspaper and asking what happened to the deaf boy. Doc says the boy has been sent to Pennhurst for help, while Doc watches passersby as if they might know more than they should.

The conversation turns tense when Doc challenges Plitzka about muddy tap water and the city’s neglect of Chicken Hill’s infrastructure. Plitzka hints he has heard damaging rumors about Doc and Chona, and suggests Chief Markus as a point of contact, escalating Doc’s fear and anger. They finally shake hands to “bury the hatchet,” and Doc promises to treat Plitzka’s toe and then send him to a skilled Hill shoemaker, Skrup—quietly withholding that Skrup is Jewish.