It is January 1983, and Mala is pregnant. She is delighted after unsuccessfully trying to conceive for many years. She craves meat during her pregnancy, a foreboding sign for a lifelong vegetarian (80).

Rumors of impending disaster and violence intensify. Yasodhara and Shiva remain oblivious to the encroaching violence and notice one another’s attractiveness. Their budding romantic interest halts when violent mobs attack Tamil residences one night. Sylvia Sunethra lies to the mob to protect the Tamil Shivalingam family upstairs, managing to thwart the violence for three full days while the Shivalingam family flees.

Mala feels intense labor pains during the third night of a 24-hour curfew on the town. She is two months from full term. Anuradha offers to fetch a doctor, but Mala fears what may happen to him alone on the streets, so they venture out in their car toward the hospital. They quickly encounter a mob in the streets, and Anuradha leaves the car to protect a Tamil schoolboy from “the glint of knives, broken bottles, machetes” (86). Trapped inside the car, Mala witnesses as Anuradha is violently murdered while trying to protect the Tamil boy from the crowd. Alwis, the local coconut picker, drags Mala to safety as the mob lights bodies and vehicles on fire.