Patch stands in line at a Tucson bank after nearly ten months on the road. As he waits, he thinks back to leaving Monta Clare before sunrise with almost nothing, driving west through the Midwest and Great Plains with Grace still fixed in his mind. Early in the journey, he meets Drew and Sally, whose daughter Anna May disappeared years earlier; after realizing Anna May is not Grace, Patch still paints her portrait and arranges for Sammy to display it so she will not be forgotten.

Patch keeps moving from lead to lead, living cheaply out of his car and spending nearly all of his money on gas. He sleeps in the car, eats little, washes in diner bathrooms, and mails his finished paintings to Sammy. In Texas he follows archived cases, sees the ocean for the first time, and spends weeks painting Lucy Williams and Ellen Hernandez on a beach before sending those works on as well. His travels bring brief moments of wonder, but each new place also renews his grief and his belief that he will keep chasing Callie until he dies unless he learns what happened to her.

As the months pass, Patch travels through more states and meets many families of missing girls. Some families resist reopening old pain, while others cling to hope that his search for Grace might somehow lead to their daughters. He works temporarily on farms, studies old newspaper archives, follows weak similarities in photographs, and tests every possibility, even while doubting his own sanity because Grace remains more idea than certainty. The search hardens into a disciplined routine of travel, exercise, and relentless pursuit.

Eventually Patch runs short of money and calls Sammy, who complains about bad business at the gallery and recession-era strain. With no other way to keep going, Patch walks up to the bank counter, pulls an unloaded gun, and calmly orders the teller to fill his bag. He apologizes to the teller, takes the money, and leaves without resistance or pursuit. The next day the teller exaggerates the threat in the newspaper, but by then Patch is already heading toward another lead in Utah, having donated all but a few hundred dollars of the stolen cash to the Destiny Missing Persons charity.