- Alexandra arrives in Lincoln, where she's going to visit Frank Shabata in prison.
- She decides to go to the university campus, where she last was for Emil's commencement. As she watches the students going about their lives, she wishes some of them would stop to talk to her and tell her about Emil.
- In fact, one of them does stop to talk, when he accidentally runs into her. She asks him if he's an old student at the university. He tells her he's in his Freshman year.
- She explains that she's looking for her brother's friends, and he suggests that she look for some of the Seniors in the library.
- Alexandra goes back to her hotel feeling a little better, although she didn't find anyone who knew Emil. As she gets ready for bed, she thinks about the boy she met on the university campus, about how polite he was, just like Emil, and hopes that he does well in school.
- The next morning, Alexandra shows up at the penitentiary. She talks to the warden, a cheerful German man by the name of Mr. Schwarz.
- Alexandra tells the warden Frank's story, but he seems unfazed. He tells her that Frank is doing fine in prison. He sends for him to be brought to speak with Alexandra.
- When she's alone, and has a chance to take in her surroundings, Alexandra starts to feel nervous for the first time since arriving in Lincoln.
- A guard brings Frank in. Alexandra hardly recognizes him. His face looks grey, his lips have lost their color, and his once gleaming white teeth look yellow.
- Alexandra holds out her hand to shake his, assuring him that she has no hard feelings toward him. She tells him that they were more to blame than he was.
- Frank starts to cry. He tries to say that he never meant either of them any harm, but then he found them… Frank breaks off, as if paralyzed.
- To Alexandra, it seems like Frank has become a totally different person. He doesn't even seem human.
- When she talks, trying to assure him again that she doesn't blame him, he seems agitated. He complains that he can't think straight, that he's forgetting his English since coming to prison.
- Alexandra asks him again if he has any hard feelings toward her. He strikes the table, and starts to rant.
- He talks about how he never hit his wife, even when he knew all along that she didn't care about him anymore and was seeing another man. If he hadn't taken the gun with him that day, none of this would have happened. Then he breaks off his speech, just like before.
- Alexandra tells him that she knew he never meant to hurt Marie, and Frank starts to rave again. He tells her that he hates Marie for making him do what he did.
- As Frank talks, Alexandra remembers Frank's yellow cane. She remembers Marie's story about how Frank, the dashing young man, who got the prettiest girl in all of Omaha. She can't help but blame Marie.
- But then, she thinks, is there something wrong in being "warm-hearted and impulsive," like Marie was (5.2.34)?
- Alexandra stands up and offers Frank her hand, again. She tells him that she will not stop until she gets him pardoned by the governor. Franks hears this, and tells her that the first thing he'd do is leave the country and go back to see his mother.
- Then, without letting go of her hand, Frank starts to ask her whether she thinks he treated Marie badly all those years…
- Alexandra interrupts him. She's not there to talk about that, she says. Since she can't help Emil anymore, she's resolved to help him.
- Alexandra leaves the prison. In the streetcar, she thinks how she and Frank have both been destroyed by what's happened. Even though she's free, life for her has also become a prison.
- She remembers two lines from a poem she used to like as a girl ("The Prisoner of Chillon," by Lord Byron—check out "Shout Outs" for more).
- She feels disgusted by life.
- When she gets back to the hotel, the clerk gives her a telegram. It's from Carl. He's arrived in Hanover and is waiting for her to get back.
- Reading the telegram in her hotel room, Alexandra bursts into tears.