it is futile to try to change his stubborn determination.

At the other place, Miranda discovers a weathered book hidden in the attic. It is a ledger that contains a record of sale for her ancestor; she struggles to decipher the blurred words, as the name “Sapphira” has been lost in the family record and is no longer known to the Days. That night, she dreams of Sapphira Wade. Her visions reveal a solution to Cocoa’s illness; she must integrate George’s faith in his ability to save Cocoa into the Day family history. His belief must be connected with that of the men who came before him, husbands who never stopped believing they could save their wives from suffering and death.

Meanwhile, Cocoa’s condition deteriorates. The welts vanish, but her body looks and smells like a corpse. George becomes increasingly desperate. The men at the bridge, however, have burned his boat and thwarted his plans. He has no choice but to seek help from Mama Day. George spends one more night working on the bridge before deciding to walk to the other place at dawn. Miranda is waiting for him and offers a cure; he must walk with her cane and the ledger to her chicken coop, retrieve what he finds there, and return to the homestead. Yet George is still not ready to trust her and leaves in anger after hearing this peculiar command.

Upon returning to Abigail’s home, George discovers that Cocoa’s body is infested with worms, prompting him to reconsider his decision. He heads back to the other place, retrieves the cane and ledger, and makes his way to the chicken coop. Once there, George is baffled; he dismantles the coop but finds nothing. He envisions that only his hands remain; unbeknownst to him, his hands are the tools Miranda needs. The physical and emotional strain finally takes its toll on George. He stumbles back to the house, where his heart, already weakened by a childhood bout of rheumatic fever, fails him. He lies down beside Cocoa and passes away.

After George’s death, Cocoa recovers physically, but her soul mourns for George. She returns to New York to collect her belongings and close up the house. Cocoa has decided to return to Willow Springs and leave the city behind, as New York holds too many memories of George.

In the following scene, it is Candle Walk night in Willow Springs. Miranda ends the night with a solitary walk to the family plot. She speaks to George at his headstone, giving meaning to the tragedy of his death. Miranda suggests that George revealed the past to her, showing that Sapphira, the enslaved woman, was always free in spirit. She reassures George that his spirit continues to guide Cocoa and that she will keep learning from her love for him. Miranda concludes her monologue with comforting words for George: “Whatever roads take her from here, they’ll always lead back to you.”

Eleven years later, it is Cocoa’s turn to speak at George’s grave. She has relocated to Charleston and built a life with her new husband and two sons, naming the youngest son George. She tries to tell her son about his namesake but can only say that “he was named after a man who looked just like love.” At this moment, Cocoa grieves not for herself but for the profound love she lost with George. The book concludes as Mama Day joins Cocoa on the bluff. The old woman imagines that her niece has finally “been given the meaning of peace.” They stand together beneath the trees at the graveyard, listening to the now “still waters” around them.

Analysis
The hurricane's arrival signifies the novel's peak moment. As the storm intensifies, the characters must confront their internal conflicts while also struggling to survive. Among them, George faces the most severe test, with far-reaching consequences. At the storm's onset, George experiences a revelation that defines his ordeal. He perceives the winds as the “power of God,” serving as a reminder of his vulnerability to nature's might and his relative insignificance in the grand scheme of creation. For perhaps the first time, George cannot rely on his rationality to combat this force. Instead, he seeks solace in human “company” rather than in logical reasoning. The hurricane seems to have transformed George, blending his reliance on reason with a newfound respect for the unknown.

However, Naylor does not permit George to transcend his character's inherent limitations. The subsequent events following the hurricane push his patience and beliefs beyond their limits. Cocoa has been poisoned by Ruby and is on the brink of death in her bedroom. Miranda has withdrawn to another place, waiting for a solution to emerge. The island's only bridge has been destroyed, and a local crew is slowly working on a new connection to the mainland. These overwhelming circumstances are too much for George to comprehend. He reverts to his engineering mindset, planning to rebuild the bridge and seek medical help on the mainland. These seemingly logical choices, however, only lead to his downfall. Exhausted and desperate when his plan fails, George turns to Miranda for help but is too weakened to complete the ritual. He dies, having saved Cocoa but not himself.

George's tragic fate endangers the entire Day family. He becomes a casualty of dire circumstances that appear beyond his control. Similarly, it seems the Day women are unable to break free from their grim historical legacy. As Miranda had feared, Cocoa inherits a legacy of loss assigned to her from birth. Cocoa survives but is profoundly affected by George's death, a sorrow that lingers throughout her life, even after she remarries and has two long-awaited children.

It is significant that the Day women do not ultimately become tragic victims in this novel. Instead, the family's history shifts with Cocoa’s narrative, bringing a sense of hope to a lineage unaccustomed to optimism about the future. Her story illustrates that meaning can emerge from the experience of loss. Unlike her mother and great-grandmother, Cocoa does not opt for the easy escape of death. Nor does she seek vengeance for her misfortunes. Instead, she confronts her grief, accepting its terms. This process is ongoing and evolves over the years, yet she is able to form new relationships without erasing her past. George remains her primary symbol of love, a “man who looked just like love,” who will continue to hold this place until she “sees [him] again.” Cocoa thus breaks the family curse of “breaking someone’s heart” that has long plagued her lineage.

The tragedy involving Cocoa and George also brings a sense of peace to Miranda. The anguish tied to motherhood is eased for her; she no longer laments her past, the loss of her mother in childhood, nor fears the future for her nieces and nephews. Instead, she finds solace in the Day family history, which has finally been unveiled to her. In a final monologue delivered to George at the graveyard on Candle Walk night, she asserts that their unique history showcases the power of freedom over slavery and survival over suffering. She realizes that her great-grandmother was not a slave to Bascombe; instead, “what she gave of her own will, she took away.” The lights of Candle Walk symbolize the liberating power of love, whether between Bascombe and Sapphira or Cocoa and George. This vision ultimately bestows understanding and love, not suffering and death, to Miranda’s descendants. It provides her with a sense of peace, offering protection for both Miranda and Cocoa as they stand together by the “still waters” surrounding Willow Springs. The year “1823” comes to represent love and survival, rather than betrayal and loss, for this family.