Beth drives Gabriel Wolfe and his son, Leo, back to Meadowlands with the dead dog, Rocket, wrapped in the back of the Land Rover. Leo sobs and calls the shooting murder, while Gabriel tries to explain that the dog acted on instinct and that the farmer had to protect the lambs. Beth understands the practical and emotional cost of livestock being killed, but Leo’s grief still moves her deeply. Seeing Gabriel as a worried father, rather than the famous writer he has become, makes the encounter feel surreal and reminds Beth how far their lives have diverged.

At Meadowlands, Gabriel does not know what to do with Rocket, and Beth tells him the dog should be buried. When Leo politely asks Beth to come with them, she agrees, and the three walk across the grounds toward the lake. The familiar house, the blue window frames, and the path to the lake all stir Beth’s memories of her past with Gabriel. At the same time, Beth thinks of Bobby and of the life she built as a farmer’s wife and mother, trying to keep Gabriel fixed in the past instead of letting the meeting unsettle her.

While Gabriel goes to fetch spades, Beth waits with Leo by the lake. Leo admits that he misses his friends and dislikes the children at his new school. Beth tells Leo that her own son used to go there, and when Leo asks about him, Beth says that Bobby died two years earlier at the age of nine. Leo responds with simple, unexpected kindness by taking Beth’s hand and saying she must miss Bobby, and his sympathy gives Beth a brief sense of peace.

Gabriel returns with spades, and the three begin digging beneath a willow tree until Leo tires and sits nearby. Beth and Gabriel briefly laugh together while talking about Gabriel’s mother, but the mood changes when Leo tells Gabriel about Bobby’s death and Beth’s sadness. Gabriel admits that he wanted to write to Beth but did not know how, and Beth stops him because she cannot bear another apology or the awkward pity that surrounds her grief. Instead, when Gabriel asks whether they can be friends, Beth takes his hand across Rocket’s grave and agrees, reopening a connection she had long tried to shut away.