Mauro finds work as a custodian. With lasting sobriety and a good job, he comes to be an accepted part of Perla’s home and grows ever closer to Perla, who struggles to remember the names of her absent grandchildren.

The narrator relates the Andean creation stories Mauro tells Talia, focusing on the conflicting nature of the gods with one another and the uncertainty of whether the gods were beneficent or destructive. 

The narrator describes the changes happening in Elena’s life in this chapter. She, Mauro, and Talia see each other through video calls; and they each tell the other they have not changed. The greater change to Elena has to do with her psyche. She remains at the restaurant for a time—the narrator calls these “zombie days”—having no other position. Soon, however, she strikes out on her own and finds several homes to clean. She is cautious in choosing clients, but she still encounters the idiosyncrasies of some middle-class North Americans, as well as their obliviousness and prejudice. Elena teaches her growing children how to avoid interacting with the police.