Rowan drifts in and out of a fever dream about her pregnancy before waking in a bath under cold water, where Fen is trying to bring her temperature down. Fen dries Rowan, re-bandages her wounds, helps dress her, and gives her painkillers. Later, half-awake in the dark, Rowan overhears Dominic telling Fen to take blankets and sleep in the boathouse instead of on the beach, which hints at tensions and habits Rowan does not yet understand.

By morning, Rowan's fever has broken and she is strong enough to leave bed. After a brief encounter with Orly in the hall, she reaches the bathroom, removes her borrowed pajamas, and panics while trying to unwrap her bandages alone. Dominic walks in on her, then helps finish removing the dressings. Rowan finally sees the damage to her left side: deep stitched wounds, missing flesh, bruising, and grazes. Dominic tells Rowan that her body survived when it should not have, introduces himself, and asks who she is and where she came from; Rowan gives her name but says she does not know where she came from.

After more sleep and food, Rowan wakes clearer-headed and goes downstairs. In the kitchen she meets Raff, who tells her she has already been on the island for a week. As Rowan eats ravenously and drinks coffee, she studies the lighthouse and realizes how old-fashioned and isolated it is. Watching Raff struggle methodically through schoolwork, Rowan learns that he has been living on Shearwater for eight years, which deepens her sense that this family has been cut off from ordinary life for a very long time.

Rowan's questions lead Raff to explain the island's conditions. Supplies come only every six months and are strictly rationed, while a research base lower down on the island contains medical equipment. Raff then reveals the larger truth: the scientists have all left, Shearwater is being shut down because the island is becoming too dangerous and is physically disappearing, and only Dominic's family remains. They are merely caretakers finishing up before leaving in about six weeks. This shocks Rowan, because it means there is no larger community nearby and no obvious help coming.

When Rowan asks to use the communications equipment and arrange an evacuation, Dominic enters and answers instead. He says Rowan's boat has been found smashed in the Drift, that Yen's body has not been recovered but he is dead, and that Rowan was apparently not headed for Shearwater at all. Dominic's tension eases when Rowan says she was not trying to reach the island, but he also admits that he has contacted no one about her arrival or the wreck. When Rowan offers to go with him immediately to radio for help, Dominic shuts the conversation down and leaves, making it clear that Rowan is still stranded and that she has reason to distrust the family's secrecy.