- Augie is able to make ends meet with money he's getting from Mimi, both repayment and a loan.
- She's taken up with Arthur Einhorn.
- Augie spends most of his time reading books.
- He gets certified to work through the New Deal Works Progress Administration and gets a job checking plumbing on houses. Augie's not wild about the smells.
- Mimi next gets him hooked up with a union organizer named Grammick.
- So Augie becomes a union organizer, working some in office, and some out and about in the evenings, visiting with various laborers to get people signed up.
- He visits a hotel man named Eddie Dawson who wants to see his credentials and have Augie arrange a meeting with the hotel workers and the union higher-ups.
- Augie says he'll arrange it.
- One morning Augie drops in on Einhorn.
- They discuss Augie's new job and the politics of unions.
- Einhorn says unions are just another big organization for dough and they can't make men out of slobs.
- Augie gets the right impression that neither Einhorn nor Mildred, who's also there, want him around.
- Arthur comes in and a child follows.
- He's divorced and the mother dumped the child on them.
- Einhorn asks Augie if he knows Mimi. Arthur likes her. Einhorn is disappointed that Augie isn't sleeping with her.
- Augie says the best person to ask about Mimi is Mimi, but that he doubts she's interested in marriage.
- Einhorn likes this news. He asks if Augie would get Arthur a job in his organization.
- Here the narrative moves to Augie's current romantic life with a scene at his job.
- He is with a woman named Sophie Geratis. She's a chambermaid in a luxury hotel and had come to him to speak for a delegation applying for membership in the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).
- At a meeting, the women sign and want to be led into a strike right away, but because they are legally represented by the AFL, the CIO can't bargain for them. First, a majority would have to switch and then they'd have to hold an election.
- Augie fails to explain this to them and calls Sophie into the hall to try to get the point across. There, they kiss.
- She goes home with him because she lives with her sister and they're both engaged.
- Sophie figures she's being sensible by storing up pleasure so she won't have unfaithful cravings later.
- Mimi teases Augie about the noises Sophie makes—mostly laughter, telling him that his dame brings her own cheering section.
- Mimi also tells Augie that someone stopped by to see him, a very pretty young lady.
- Augie wonders if Lucy changed her mind.
- When Augie brings up Einhorn's request, Mimi goes off on him, calling him an old stinker.
- She complains about Einhorn putting his hand on her leg.
- Augie tries to defend Einhorn, but Mimi won't hear of it. She says that the old man is terrible to Arthur and rides him to death on account of the kid.
- He also has the clap, an STD, which prevents him from working.
- Augie sees that Mimi really is for Arthur.
- New scene: Augie is in bed, kissing Sophie. There's a knock on his door. A voice asks for him.
- It's Thea Fenchel.
- He opens the door and pops his head out.
- She says she's been by a couple of times and wants to see him. She found him by hiring a detective.
- Thea writes a note and places it under the door.
- Sophie decides to leave, feeling that Augie would rather see this other woman tonight. Augie's protests do no good.
- Augie phones Thea every chance he gets, but no one answers.
- He has to go out to the sticks on union business, but calls her from there and gets through. She says she's leaving Chicago soon, but can wait until he gets back.
- Augie has pressing business. Workers at the Northumberland Hotel want to strike. They're having a meeting right now and the AFL still represents them.
- Augie gets to the meeting and tries to stop them, telling those who signed with him that a strike wouldn't be legal. The Federation guys would just replace them.
- An enemy union guy and his men assault Aggie. The women make a ring around him to guide him.
- Sophie pulls him away and he makes a run for it.
- He has to shake off pursuit once outside.
- After throwing up at a theater restroom, he grabs a Taxi for Thea's.