Note: The page numbers listed in this summary correspond to the 1994 Grove Press edition of The Palm-Wine Drinkard and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. For those reading the original 1953 Grove Press edition of the novel, this summary refers to pages 68–95.

The Faithful-Mother takes the narrator and his wife to a large hall where over three hundred people are dancing. There are many images in the hall, including those of the narrator and his wife. The Faithful-Mother says she has these images for remembrance and to know those she is helping. The Faithful-Mother takes them to a hospital, where they convalesce for a week as the hair that was scraped off their heads in Unreturnable-Heaven’s Town grows back.

The narrator and his wife stay with the Faithful-Mother for a year and two weeks, drinking and dancing. After this, the Faithful-Mother says that they must go and sends them on their way with arms, ammunition, expensive clothing, meat, drink, and cigarettes. Shortly after beginning their journey, they meet the Red-lady, who takes them to the Red-town, where all the people, as well as the food and water, are red.

The Red-lady takes them to the Red-king, who tells them that the Faithful-Mother is his sister. He gives them a room in his palace, but they cannot sleep, because they wonder about the Red-king’s true aims. The next morning, the Red-king tells them that the inhabitants of the town were once human. When he was a human being, he set traps in which he caught a red bird and a red fish. He made a fire and put both creatures into it, though they protested and continued talking to him when they were in the fire, telling him to take them out. The smoke from the fire enveloped him and he turned red. He ran back to his town, but the smoke followed him and turned everyone there red as well, along with all the animals.

The townspeople died, but they were still red after death. The red fish and the red bird came to live near the Red-town and continue to demand human sacrifice from the inhabitants every year. The next sacrifice is due in three days, and the Red-king asks that either the narrator or his wife volunteer for this role. The narrator volunteers, because he does not believe that he can be killed by the creatures.

The people of the Red-town prepare the narrator for sacrifice and leave him near the hole occupied by the red fish and the red bird. The narrator shoots both creatures, but when he tells the Red-king what he has done, the king reflects that the narrator is a dangerous man who may harm the town in the future. The people of the Red-town change themselves into a great fire and burn down the town. Then they turn into two red trees and run away from the ruined town.

The red trees settle down to found a new town, the people of which are no longer red, a result of the death of the two red creatures. The narrator and his wife come to live among them as friends and celebrate their liberation. The narrator plants the seeds he received on Wraith-Island and soon becomes a rich man.

A man who calls himself the Invisible-Pawn or Give and Take comes to work for the narrator. Whatever work is in hand on any particular day, from tilling ground to chopping wood to cutting hair, Invisible-Pawn surpasses all the other workers. When the people become suspicious of him, he kills large...