- More letters are exchanged, and by now 1871 has become the year of a massive drought—it hasn't rained since the beginning of June.
- Ma and Sheriff McCabe decide to honeymoon in Madison in November. Agatha asks them to bring Mr. Olmstead along. Hint, hint.
- In September, Mrs. Garrow shows up at the store asking for a guide to the cemetery.
- Ma and Georgie take her, assuming she wants to see Grandfather Bolte's grave, like many who come to pay their respects.
- Mrs. Garrow wants to see Agatha's grave, though, because it turns out the body is Darlene Garrow's.
- Darlene was shot accidentally when Mr. Garrow and Morgy Harrison were arguing about the elopement.
- Mr. Garrow tried to hide his involvement in Darlene's death from his wife by dumping the body on Miller Road, where Sheriff McCabe found it.
- Mrs. Garrow is really mad, obviously, and can't go near her husband anyway because she would also be arrested.
- She leaves the money for a new tombstone. It's counterfeit, but they use it anyway and put Agatha's in the cellar with its face to the wall.
- On Sunday, October 8, fires start along the shore of Lake Michigan. Now people instead of pigeons pour into Placid, refugees and victims of the fires.
- Georgie pays her respects often to those fire victims who die in Placid, wanting to them to know they're remembered—she has come to really value life.
- She even puts away the Springfield, not wanting to take life anymore, wanting to be like Agatha, spinning under the pigeons and finding her place in the world.