It is the night of the performance, and Raj and Klara arrive at The Mirage. Raj goes to set up, and Klara takes Ruby to daycare. She rides the elevator up to the top of the hotel and sneaks into a penthouse suite. Instead of preparing for her act, “She takes a bottle of Bombay Sapphire and Johnnie Walker Black Label, a Veuve Clicquot. She rotates between them, coughing on the champagne before she starts the cycle again” (170). She calls her family and tells them it is the night of her performance.

Klara then takes out a rope and attaches it to the ceiling. The novel makes it clear that she is not planning on performing but instead testing the prophecy, taking matters into her own hands. She wants to wait for knocks as a sign. She finally hears them, but it is someone at the door calling her name. At that point, she hangs herself.  

The novel travels back to May 1987, when Daniel is at school in Chicago. He notices Mira a few times before they speak. One day, Mira sits down at Daniel’s table in the cafeteria, and the two begin talking. Mira reveals that she is studying Jewish art history.