Six months after Ninan’s death and Elsie’s departure from Parambil, Big Ammachi and Uplift Master travel to the Thetanatt house for Chandy’s funeral. The house, once loud with his laughter, now centers on his coffin as mourners sing. Big Ammachi, already worn by recent deaths—Ninan, Odat Kochamma, and Shamuel’s wife—rails inwardly at God, then softens, seeing life’s brevity and the constancy of grief.

Elsie collapses into Big Ammachi’s arms, gaunt and shaken, and clings to her throughout the wake. At the burial, Uplift Master urges departure; Big Ammachi longs to bring Elsie home but respects obligations at the Thetanatt house and the deep rift with Philipose. She returns to Parambil resolved but uncertain.

On the journey back she contemplates the smallness of individual sorrows within God’s vast time. Reaching home, she bristles at Philipose, who refused to attend the funeral, crippled by injuries from leaping to retrieve Ninan’s body and by guilt. She watches him dose himself from an opium box, worsening his isolation, and notes his break with Joppan and the purchase of a bicycle to source opium himself. As Baby Mol grows weaker from grief and near-starvation, Big Ammachi writes repeatedly to Elsie, withholding other news—Lizzi’s clandestine letters and the perilous pregnancy that nonetheless produced baby Lenin.

With Baby Mol’s decline accelerating, Big Ammachi sends a final plea. Days later, Philipose, shaving on the verandah, sees a lone woman approaching; flooding has collapsed a culvert, forcing her to come on foot. It is Elsie. Baby Mol, who had foretold visitors, rushes into Elsie’s arms, and Big Ammachi embraces her as well. The women disappear into the kitchen, reunited at last, while Philipose remains on the verandah, speechless and envious, apart from the fragile reconciliation unfolding inside.