After the trial date is fixed, Eleanor comes to stay with Beth and Frank and uses her legal experience to prepare them for court. She relentlessly rehearses Frank’s account of the shooting so the defense can present Jimmy’s death as the result of a drunken struggle and self-defense, not murder. In court, Robert Miles carefully questions Gabriel to establish that Jimmy was drunk, armed, aggressive, and dangerous when Gabriel brought him back to the farm, strengthening Frank’s case.

While Frank and Gabriel are forbidden to meet before the trial, Beth cannot bear to leave things unsaid and secretly arranges to meet Gabriel beneath an old chestnut tree. They speak about Leo’s nightmares, their shared guilt, and the damage their affair has caused. Beth tells Gabriel that she still loves him but must stay with Frank because their history, grief, and mutual need bind them together, and the two part without saying goodbye.

Outside court, photographers crowd around Gabriel, and Beth and Gabriel are caught in a brief, charged look that the newspapers turn into public proof of their love and heartbreak. Back at Eleanor’s flat, Beth tries to survive each day of the trial while fearing what a murder conviction would mean for Frank: years in prison, confinement, and the destruction of the life they still hope to rebuild. Eleanor keeps insisting that the prosecution’s inclusion of manslaughter shows weakness, but Beth struggles to believe it.

When Frank takes the stand, he surprises Beth by openly admitting Jimmy had a drink problem and by explaining that Bobby’s death left him feeling he had ruined Beth’s life. Frank says Jimmy was devastated by Beth’s affair, that he himself did not want revenge, and that he only grabbed the gun to stop a drunk man from causing harm. Under Donald Glossop’s cross-examination, however, Frank is pressed on his skill with guns, changes in his account, Jimmy’s insults about Beth, and the possibility that he acted in rage; although Frank repeatedly denies it, the prosecution succeeds in making his anger visible to the jury.

Before the closing speeches, Robert unexpectedly calls Nina as a final character witness. Nina says Jimmy had been unstable, still drunk, and obsessed with punishing Gabriel, and she recalls that Beth first described the shooting as an accident; most importantly, Nina tells the court that Frank loved Jimmy more than anyone and could never have killed him deliberately. That night, Beth and Frank share a brief, tender phone call before the verdict, and Beth keeps to herself a new private hope: she thinks she may be pregnant.