Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child sexual abuse.

Grady reflects on island life as he and Sandy drive. Finally, they arrive at the House on the Hill, where Sandy and Midge grew up. Over dinner and drinks, the sisters tell Grady more about the Isle of Amberly, Charles Whittaker, and writing. Grady silently reflects on his decision to steal Charles’s idea throughout their conversation.

Grady tells the sisters about Abby’s support for his writing career, omitting the fact that she disappeared. The conversation turns to the sisters’ relationships with the island. They muse on the “eternal human quest for happiness” and the elusiveness of home (85). They also talk about the other islanders, their occupations, and their families.

Then Midge reveals that Sandy is also the Amberly sheriff, suggesting that Grady pick her brain if he’s writing a crime novel. She alludes to the time a woman disappeared on the island and a dead man washed up missing a hand. Unnerved, Grady tells them about the hand bones.