- After the slaughter, the number of men in the village drops from 42 to 15 – 5 of them are old men. Everyone has lost someone.
- Many people talk about leaving for Santa Catalina, an island that is nearby, but in the end they decide to stay. Kimki, one of the village elders, is elected to be the new Chief. He's old, but was a good hunter in his youth.
- Because there are so few men in the village, the women take over many of the men's jobs. They are not staying in the home anymore, but instead, they have to go out and catch birds and fish. This causes some of the men to grumble and be jealous when the women do a better job than the men did before.
- Ulape and Karana's job is to gather abalones, a shellfish that grows on the rocks of the island. Ramo is given the job of protecting the abalones from the seagulls and the pack of wild dogs that now wanders around the island.
- The pack of wild dogs banded together when their owners died and there was no one to take care of them.
- All autumn and winter, the people of the village feel haunted by the ghosts of those who were killed. The people have a hard time with so many sad memories.
- In the spring, Kimki tells the tribe he's going on a journey to the east – to a country he visited as a boy. (That would be the mainland of America.)
- Kimki will go alone but promises to return for the rest of the village. He leaves on a sunny day in a canoe filled with water and supplies.
- The village wonders if Kimki will ever reach the far country – and if and when he'll come back.