The following fall, Patch keeps his promise and opens the rebuilt white house to the town. Norma handles the invitations, and nearly three hundred people attend. Daisy Creason from The Tribune covers the event on the front page because Patch hopes any publicity might somehow reach Grace.

At the ceremony, Sammy insists on cutting the ribbon and delivers a drunken, wandering speech about bureaucracy and the town planning office. His behavior shocks some guests but amuses Charlotte, and he jokingly names the place the Mad House, which almost makes Patch smile. Inside, Misty oversees the food, and Sammy hangs some of Patch’s paintings, drawing attention from local women curious about the artist.

When the attention becomes too much, Misty links arms with Patch and takes him outside to the yard lit with fairy lights. Sitting together on a carved oak bench, they talk about the house. Misty tells Patch the house looks exactly like the painting, and Patch explains that somewhere out there is a house like this one, the place where Grace once lived. Their conversation turns from the party to why they both returned to Monta Clare.

Misty says she came back so Charlotte could have the kind of life Misty once had and so Misty’s mother could know her. Patch admits he came back because the world feels too large to ever find someone if both people keep moving. Then Misty tells him there is something else: she is sick, and it is the kind of sickness she will not recover from. The celebration is suddenly overshadowed by the threat of another devastating loss, and Patch can only hold her in grief.