In Madras, Claude arrives home drunk, belligerent, and physically sloppy, collapsing, bleeding, and vomiting. Disgusted, Celeste leaves, resolved to be honest about her marriage’s end. She cycles to Digby’s studio, where a still life—earthen pot, mangoes, and an emerald sari—sits under candlelight.

Celeste tells Digby that Claude intends to file for divorce and name Digby to intimidate his testimony in the upcoming inquiry. Digby has already received an anonymous warning. After a fraught exchange, Celeste clarifies that Claude doesn’t know of their affair and that she wants the divorce—and a life on her own. She outlines plans to live simply at the Theosophical Society, financially buoyed by savings, jewelry, and art, hoping her grown children will see through Claude.

Muthu briefly interrupts, then procures whisky from a neighbor. Hurt and conflicted, Digby drinks with Celeste. They make love; Digby paints anatomical outlines on Celeste’s body with Rose Madder, a tactile worship that tries to soothe the inevitability of her leaving. Exhausted, they fall asleep on a tarp beneath the candlelit still life.

They wake to smoke and blue flames: the candle has ignited turpentine-soaked rags, and fire races across the studio. The silk sari backdrop, now aflame, traps Celeste. Digby, burning his hands as melting silk adheres to his skin, desperately pulls it away, fixated on restoring the still life and saving Celeste as the room burns.