The young bride, her mother, and relatives travel by boat through canals blanketed with lotus to a revered St. Thomas church. At the church, the anxious marriage broker waits while Thankamma, the groom’s sister, welcomes the bride. The girl, dressed in the white chatta and mundu of a married woman, trembles as the service begins.

When the groom arrives, he studies the bride mid-ritual, exclaiming, "But this is just a child!" He turns his back to the priest and flees the church. Thankamma pursues him to a burden stone and, invoking tradition, compassion for the girl’s honor, and his son JoJo’s need for care, coaxes him to return.

The groom resumes the ceremony, ties the minnu around the bride’s neck, and signs the register. He then heads off on foot, as is his habit. At the jetty, the bride parts tearfully from her mother. Thankamma promises to stay at Parambil for weeks to help the bride learn her new household and then carries her into the boat.

The narration widens to describe Kerala’s water-woven landscape, princely-state politics under British suzerainty, and the region’s centuries-old spice trade. It recounts the legend of Saint Thomas’s arrival and the formation of the Saint Thomas Christian community to which both families belong.

Finally, the perspective telescopes forward: the bride will become a grandmother who tells her namesake of Parambil—a landlocked house in a land of water—and of a lineage riddled with secrets. The chapter frames the marriage as the gateway to a broader family saga about faith, memory, and the burdens and revelations of hidden histories.