In a dank Gestapo cell, Isabelle endures disorienting torture and can barely track time. Schmidt forces her into an oversized dress and repeats the accusation that she is the Nightingale. Isabelle insists she is “Juliette Gervaise,” trying to hold onto the belief that they can destroy her body but not her soul.

Schmidt brings in Isabelle’s father, Julien Rossignol, who is unharmed and immediately sacrifices himself, declaring that he is the Nightingale to stop the torture and save Isabelle. Isabelle tries to take the blame back, shouting that she is the Nightingale, but the Gestapo drags Julien away. From the barred window, Isabelle watches him face the firing squad in the square; he silently mouths that he loves her, and then he is executed.

In Carriveau, Vianne wakes bruised and traumatized after Von Richter’s rape, torn between shame, rage, and the need to keep functioning for Sophie and Daniel. Despite the danger of travel and being watched, Vianne takes a train to Girot, determined to help Isabelle and their father. In the square, Vianne finds Julien’s bullet-ridden body lashed to the fountain, confirming Isabelle’s warning that there is no longer time.

Back at the prison, Isabelle is given shoes and her false papers and is dragged outside, where she screams at the sight of Julien’s corpse. Vianne approaches Isabelle to help, but Isabelle pushes her away to protect her. Isabelle is loaded onto a lorry and then forced into an overcrowded cattle car of women and children, where she reunites with Madame Babineau, who tells Isabelle to call her Micheline; Micheline also explains Julien’s war-broken decline and the complicated love behind his final choice.

After days of thirst, heat, filth, and stops for more deportees, the train arrives at a camp. Isabelle and the others are beaten into lines, robbed, stripped, and brutally shaved; Isabelle panics briefly in a shower room, fearing gas, but freezing water pours instead. Issued striped clothing and mismatched shoes, Isabelle is placed in packed bunks with Micheline nearby and learns where she is: Ravensbrück. Isabelle ends the chapter focused on one goal—staying alive.