At the Carnegie Library, Madeline asks the librarian for help finding an Iowa boys home with a girl’s name. Reverend Wakely, nearby, suggests such homes are often named for saints. With phone books spread out, they search under saints and eventually locate All Saints Boys Home, but only a phone number is listed.

As they work, Madeline quizzes Wakely about his reading and job, and they discuss why homes are named after saints and the difference between privacy and secrets. Wakely offers to place the long-distance call from his office. When Madeline writes down her father’s name—Calvin Evans—Wakely is startled.

A flashback unfolds: in divinity school, Wakely audited chemistry and heard Calvin on an RNA panel quip that “Religion” is an ineffective collision. Wakely and Calvin exchanged letters, bonding over water sports and shared doubts about grad school, until Calvin’s anger about his father ended the correspondence. Years later, Wakely settled in Commons, learned Calvin was there, then officiated his sparsely attended funeral—only a woman and a dog were present.

Back in the library, Madeline shows a newspaper photo from the funeral as her “family picture,” identifying her mother, Elizabeth, the dog Six-Thirty, herself in utero, and Calvin in the casket. Wakely reflects on the difficulties of fitting families onto trees and worries about the grief Madeline faces explaining her origins.

Before leaving to “watch” her mother, Madeline asks Wakely to keep a secret and whispers it to him; he shares one of his own. Wakely agrees to help contact All Saints, newly aware that Madeline is Calvin’s daughter and that the search into Calvin’s past has personal stakes for them both.