Marn Wolde now takes over as narrator. Marn meets Billy Peace one dry summer, aged sixteen. He pulls into her family yard in a white car, dressed neatly, like a salesman.

Marn’s parents have a rough marriage, and she feels stranded between them. She doesn't know what a man should be, with her father so diminished and her uncle Warren filled with rage. 

Billy is wearing a gold cross and says he is selling spirit, which makes Marn’s mother scoff. Marn stays longer, listening to the directions when Billy says there is a meeting that night. 

She drives into town for the meeting. Billy Peace is not the first speaker, but he is very powerful, and Marn is moved by it. He speaks about Lucifer and asks the congregation to stand in grace, saying the world will end in four years. He begins to take credit cards from people’s fingers and cut them up, saying they are from Satan. When he reaches Marn, he asks her to stay afterward, where they will pray over Ed’s mother.

Ed is the advertised preacher, and his mother is dying. A crowd of people begin praying over her, speaking in tongues. Marn is caught up in it, and when the others place their hands on her, she does it too.

Marn sees pictures in her head sometimes, and she sees one now when she touches Ed’s mother, seeing Montana, where she grew up. Marn goes off into the picture with Ed’s mother and can feel that she is dying but is getting stronger as she walks into the picture with Marn, gaining peace.