After the RAF's first attack on Berlin, Churchill assumes Hitler will retaliate heavily. When sirens sound in London on Monday morning, August 26, Churchill sends the staff at 10 Downing Street to the shelter, but the alert is false. Dissatisfied that the RAF plans to bomb Leipzig that night, Churchill telephones Sir Cyril Newall and insists that, now that Germany has attacked the British capital, Berlin should be hit hard in return.

That night, another alert catches John Colville at dinner at St. James's Palace, and he and the other men move calmly to a shelter and change into battle dress. No bombs fall, but the long alert shuts down London and creates an eerie stillness. Back at No. 10, Churchill keeps working, later pacing the garden in a gold dressing gown before finally going to the shelter; Churchill sleeps easily, while Colville and many Londoners suffer the broken rest caused by night raids and late all-clears.

Even with mounting strain, official censorship reports suggest morale is still high, especially in heavily bombed places, though the report harshly dismisses fear and nerves. At this point, civilian districts in London and other major cities have largely escaped severe damage. Meanwhile, the RAF launches a second raid on Berlin, killing ten Berlin civilians and wounding twenty-one, deepening the escalation between the two capitals.

The chapter then shifts to Mary Churchill at Breccles Hall in Norfolk, where she and Judy Montagu spend warm summer days cycling, swimming, dancing with airmen, and enjoying a carefree rural life that makes the war seem far away. News of a devastating raid on Ramsgate jolts Mary into feeling that her country-house pleasures are a form of escapism. On September 2, Mary writes to Clementine asking to return to London because she wants to share the danger and contribute meaningfully, but Clementine replies that Mary should not feel guilty for being safe and happy and describes the family's shelter arrangements at Downing Street.

Mary's unease grows after visiting an RAF base and touring a Blenheim bomber, because the experience sharpens her frustration at being unable, as a woman, to fight as she wishes. Elsewhere, Joseph Kennedy draws contempt by moving his ambassadorial work to his country home, and Halifax privately enjoys that a German raid nearly hits it. Lord Beaverbrook, exhausted and irritated by air raids, still oversees the production of 476 fighters in August, far above expectations; when Beaverbrook boasts of this effort to Churchill, Churchill answers his self-pitying note with a dry, pointed reply: "I do."