In 1951 at Parambil, the flood subsides, leaving disease and devastation. Decency Kochamma urges repentance until Philipose rebuffs her. With mail service restored, Philipose dreads Elsie’s departure and, in withdrawal, trudges to Krishnankutty’s opium shop. A heavy dose soothes his pain and ignites confidence in his writing.

Back home he discovers Elsie sculpting a massive stone figure and takes it as a sign she will stay. After he dozes with Dostoevsky, Big Ammachi quietly reveals Elsie’s pregnancy, which Philipose greets as a divine second chance. He summons the kaniyan, who predicts a boy; Philipose proclaims the child Ninan reborn, alarming the household.

As months pass, Elsie labors over a woman on hands and knees, her face still embedded in stone. Philipose fixates on the work’s meaning, doubles his opium, and dreams the figure reveals a truth he cannot recall. In a storm-lit, drugged delusion, he believes the Stone Woman is trapped and strikes the rock, shattering the face area and fracturing his collarbone.

He fashions a sling, hides Elsie’s tools, and orders Shamuel to drag the defaced sculpture away before she sees it. The vaidyan confirms sling treatment. When Elsie arrives, Philipose claims it was an accident and says he moved the statue “safely away” until after “their son,” leaning on the kaniyan’s prophecy and his belief in Ninan’s return.

Elsie, exhausted and wounded by the loss of her work, refuses his framing of control as care: “All I wanted was your support so I could do my work… you think you’re giving it even when you’re taking it away.” The chapter closes with Philipose’s column about a wart “specialist,” Doctor X, whose cures run on belief; Philipose pays for an “internal” cure, revealing his desperation for remedies that faith alone might supply.