- With the arrival of Dane and her mother imminent, Miracle starts making up new interpretive dances that reflect what their new life will be like. She dances all over Gigi's furniture without regard to what she'll think, but still keeps her dance lessons a secret.
- One afternoon, Gigi introduces Miracle to her new boyfriend, Eugene, a fat guy with messy hair who leers at Miracle in a way that's kind of uncomfortable. Miracle doesn't like him. Big surprise.
- The person Miracle does like, though, is Granddaddy Opal's new girlfriend, Emmaline. She's a gospel singer with a gigantic, powerful voice. She's also nice, unlike Eugene.
- Granddaddy Opal and Gigi aren't the only people with new additions to their lives: Miracle has a new hobby of cutting out miracle stories from the newspaper, while Aunt Casey has started taking classes in psychology while Toole is out cheating on her.
- Miracle's thirteenth birthday arrives and Gigi arranges for everyone to get together for a dinner celebration. Miracle is convinced that today will be the day that Dane and her mother come back from the black hole, so she spends the whole day preparing.
- The birthday celebration doesn't start out too well because everyone is fighting—Toole is the one mainly starting trouble, though, because he doesn't like Emmaline because she's black (and he's racist), nor does he like that Casey taking college courses.
- The fighting's just the beginning of Miracle's birthday troubles, though, because Granddaddy Opal announces that there's a tornado warning. Miracle sees the grayish green sky outside and knows it's a sign that Dane and her mother are almost home.
- Everyone goes down in the basement and their fighting escalates when they see the replica of Dane's bedroom that Miracle set up. They're all fighting about how creepy it is, while Casey explains that Miracle has built a shrine to her father and Eugene says he's getting mysterious vibrations from the candle bottles.
- Emmaline tries to break the confusion by singing "Amazing Grace." Miracle is so inspired by the words that she begins to dance along with the music.
- Her cover is blown, and Gigi can tell she's been taking lessons, so she lashes out at Granddaddy Opal (because of course) while Casey tries to calm everyone down. Miracle tries to tell everyone to quiet down so she can feel Dane and her mother coming back. Then, the tornado hits and shakes the house's foundation.