Poppy describes the household mood in early June 1975: the town buzzes about the end of school and the high school carnival, but the Taylor family is strained after Vincent Taylor and Danny Taylor’s recent fight. At dinner, political small talk from their mother and father fails to relieve the tension. Poppy recalls Vincent telling her he wished Danny were dead and the violent sound of their fight.

When conversation turns contentious, Vincent abruptly steers Poppy back into his ongoing treasure hunt. He hints that the next clue is in Poppy’s closet. Despite her reluctance and fear, Poppy leaves the table and searches meticulously through the closet, finding nothing in shoes, shelves, or corners until a flashlight reveals a message written directly on the closet wall: “Someday soon, you’ll be dead.” The graffiti shocks Poppy, intensifying her fear given Vincent’s prior statement about Danny.

Poppy returns to the table. Vincent presses her to solve the rhyme, telling her to combine it with the previous garage clue. After trying “bed,” which their mother finds offensive, Poppy lands on “shed,” which satisfies Vincent. Though she does not want to go out in the dark, she asks permission to leave, finishes her milk under her father’s supervision, and goes to the backyard shed alone.

Inside the dark shed, Poppy’s eyes adjust and she spots a bright-yellow Kodak box. She feels immediate relief, interpreting the gift as Vincent’s indirect way of apologizing or making amends. She returns to the table and announces it is her eleventh roll of film and that it has sound.

Danny reacts dismissively, suggesting the film will enable Poppy to eavesdrop on them. The dinner ends with the unresolved tension between the siblings and the unsettling nature of Vincent’s threatening clue offset by the film “prize.”