In Part 3, Iris Chase Griffen takes up the narration of the novel. Iris is the older sister of Laura Chase, the author of the novel-within-the novel called The Blind Assassin—the story of the illicit affair between the unnamed man and woman. Iris has been asked to hand out the first awarding of a literary prize that has been named in Laura’s honor. One student from the local high school will be chosen for the prize based on the merit of submitted short stories.

Iris is not feeling too steady. Her head hurts, and it is very hot outside. A friend named Walter drives her to the school. At the school, Iris is met by another friend: Myra, who is the daughter of Reenie, her old nanny. Myra leads Iris to the stage. As she sits there, Iris listens passively to the speeches and realizes that she is barely noticed when the students come up to the stage to receive their diplomas. As the prize is explained, Iris thinks back to her sister. Having a prize in her sister’s name is somewhat ironic, Iris determines, because Laura’s book caused an uproar in the city. The local library had to pull the book from the shelves and the bookstore refused to sell it.

On another day, Iris confesses that she does not like going outside. She does not like the feeling that people are looking at her. However, her doctor insists that she get some exercise. As she walks through the town, she laments the changes she sees. She misses the old-fashioned foods and drinks; she prefers chicken pot pies to hamburgers.

When she makes her way to the family gravesite, Iris remembers receiving the silver box that contained Laura’s remains. Laura’s car crashed through a construction site on the bridge. Her body was completely burned when the car exploded at the bottom of the gorge. Iris spread Laura’s ashes on the land around the graves.

As Iris clears the family burial plot, she thinks of Sabrina, her grandchild, one of the last of the family line. She wonders what will happen to her. Winifred Griffen Prior, Iris’s sister-in-law and Sabrina’s legal guardian, has done her best to keep Iris out of Sabrina’s life.

On another day, Iris walks to the Button Factory, a business her grandfather built in the early 1870s. The factory thrived, especially through World War I and most of Iris’s early childhood. The buttons were not fancy, but they provided the family with a surplus of money.

Iris provides background information about Norval, her father, who was the oldest son in his family. He was pleasant looking, shy but dignified, as a young man. Neither he nor his two younger brothers were interested in the button business. Norval wanted to study law so he could become involved in politics. Iris often speculates about the dinner discussions that must have taken place between her grandfather and his three sons. She wonders how her grandfather shouldered the disappointment he must have felt when he realized that his sons might not take over the business he had spent his life developing.