James and Huck return at night to the slave quarters after sleeping on the beach near Jackson Island. James feels as if he is coming back to a familiar hell: the place is full of danger, but it is also where his family lived. The quarters seem unnaturally still, and although James tells Huck to go on to Miss Watson's house, Huck insists on staying with him.

Outside James's shack, Doris recognizes James and is shocked to see him alive. When James enters the shack, he finds strangers, Katie and Cotton, living there, and for a moment he fears Sadie has simply been replaced. Doris then tells James the truth: Sadie and Lizzie were sold. The news devastates James, and he drops to his knees sobbing while Huck holds him.

James desperately asks who bought Sadie and Lizzie and where they were taken, but Doris can give him only one small comfort: they were sold together, not separated. Doris says the overseer, Hopkins, came for them. Realizing that the adults around him know little, James turns to Huck and begs for help. James tells Huck to ask questions, search Judge Thatcher's papers for a bill of sale, and find any clue to where Sadie and Lizzie went.

Doris and Cotton warn James that he is now a wanted runaway and is being blamed for multiple crimes, so if he is seen he will likely be killed. To protect himself, James orders Huck to go to Miss Watson, pretend he has somehow returned safely, and lie that James drowned in the riverboat explosion. After apologizing to Katie and Cotton for bursting into their home, James asks only for a place near the fire. Exhausted and shattered by grief, James lies on the dirt floor, and someone quietly covers him with a quilt.