Moshe stands above the Ringing Rocks skating rink, trying to steady himself with prayer and routine while his life unravels: Chona is in a Reading hospital in a coma, and Dodo has been taken by the state. Remembering how Chona used to bring Dodo to the rocks to feel their vibrations, Moshe begins writing to his old friend Malachi in Poland, intending to keep things cheerful but finding he cannot.

In the letter, Moshe admits that beyond Chona’s condition and Dodo’s confinement, his theater is also failing because audiences no longer want the old Yiddish shows and familiar swing. He recounts the previous night’s crisis: Louis Armstrong cannot make the date, Moshe refuses help from Armstrong’s powerful manager Joe Glaser, and instead books Machito, Mario Bauzá, and the Afro-Cubans on Chick Webb’s recommendation.

Backstage, Gladys Hampton and Mario Bauzá clash over who closes the show, with Moshe too conflict-averse to impose a decision. When Gladys threatens to call Joe Glaser, Moshe panics and pulls Mario aside, apologizing and explaining Chona’s seizure and uncertain diagnosis. Mario softens, agrees to open the show, and tells Moshe that Latin music and the mixed cultures behind it are “the sound of the future,” warning Moshe to learn his changing audience.

The performance proves Mario right: the Afro-Cubans electrify the room, while Lionel Hampton’s swing set lands on indifferent ears. Back at Ringing Rocks, Moshe finishes the letter to Malachi admitting that the old ways may not survive in America and jokingly wonders if he should “be a cowboy.”

Three weeks later, Malachi mails Moshe a tiny pair of joke cowboy pants with a Star of David. Moshe retaliates by sealing the pants in layers of cans and asks Nate to get it soldered shut, then asks Nate to have Addie come discuss Dodo, insisting Pennhurst is no place for a child. Nate refuses emotionally, saying it is “in God’s hands,” and the chapter ends with Moshe unaware that Nate is privately burning with dark, murderous rage.