- Humbert announces: "This book is about Lolita" (2.25.1), proceeding to explain that the story will now be about the loss of her. She haunts him. He finally ships all of her clothes off to an orphanage near Canada.
- Humbert returns to the sanitarium, where he composes a missing persons ad in verse. He describes the poem as a "maniac's masterpiece" (2.25.20).
- Soon he meets Rita.