Part 3 begins with an epigraph from Canto 5 of Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, detailing how happy memories produce sadness in periods of misery.

Nonna and Elisabetta now live together, and share a glass of liqueur, part of a nightly routine. Marco comes to the door, with a gift for Elisabetta, who still misses Sandro. She opens the gift to find a dress, and Nonna tells Marco to leave, before repeating that Elisabetta can’t date him. She reveals Beppe and Serafina’s affair.

Sandro walks through the Ghetto, heading unconsciously to his old house, which was confiscated. He sees closed businesses and poverty everywhere; his mother, a doctor, was fired because of the new race laws. When Massimo arrives home, he bemoans not doing more for the legal exception. Gemma reassures him that they have savings with which they can survive. Massimo says he already used most of the savings to issue loans to the community. With his father occupied, Sandro realizes he’s leading the family now.