After a sleepless night, Rowan and the Salt family return to the vault and find that a major crack in the back wall is now pouring in seawater. The damage makes the decision for them: repairing the vault is over, so they shift to an emergency salvage operation, ferrying as many seed packets as possible to the lighthouse freezer by boat, pallet, and quad bike. The frantic labor reminds Rowan of trying and failing to save her own home before she was forced to flee, but this time she draws strength from working beside people who care as fiercely as she does.

The next day, while bringing another load from the vault, Rowan and Raff notice distressed seabirds and rough water. When they round the headland, they find the humpback mother and calf stranded on the beach. Both whales are still alive, and the family quickly debates what to do: Orly worries that stopping will cost them precious time needed to save seeds, while Rowan privately urges Dominic to spare the children a brutal, likely hopeless effort. Dominic decides they must try anyway, believing failure to act would stay with the children more than the loss itself.

Once the rescue begins, the family focuses on stabilizing the whales until high tide. They cover the whales with wet sheets and blankets, dig holes beneath the fins to relieve pressure, and keep carrying seawater in buckets. Rowan and Dominic work out the only realistic plan for moving them without a crane: Dominic uses a tractor and bucket attachment to dig trenches through the sand toward the sea. As the hours pass, Fen monitors the whales’ breathing, Raff drives himself to exhaustion, and Rowan is drawn into an intimate, painful connection with the mother whale and then with the calf, overcoming her reluctance to face the smaller animal.

By the time the tide returns in heavy rain, the trench for the calf is ready and a tarp has been worked underneath its body. The group throws all of its strength into dragging the calf toward deeper water, timing the effort with the pull of the waves. At first the whale barely shifts, but repeated surges finally lift it enough for the tarp to slide, then for the calf itself to float and begin swimming under its own power. The family erupts in relief and triumph, only to turn back and see that the mother whale has not moved, leaving the chapter suspended between one rescue and another likely loss.