After spending the night in the hayloft, Loreda returns to camp. She and Elsa reconcile, and Loreda tells her mother about the labor meeting the previous night. She wants Elsa to attend the next meeting, but Elsa refuses, arguing that communists are dangerous. She forbids Loreda from associating with them.

For the next four days, the camp is pounded with rain; disease runs rampant, and more migrants die for lack of medical care. As Elsa writes in her journal, the tent collapses from the weight of the rain. Elsa and the kids get out, but the tent is washed away along with everything inside, including their savings. As the camp floods, Elsa, Loreda, Anthony, and the Deweys fight their way to the main road, where several volunteers have appeared, offering assistance. Elsa goes back for the truck, struggling to drive it out of the flooded camp. As she finally makes it out to the main road, she follows one of the volunteers into town. They park outside an abandoned hotel where one of the volunteers—Jack Valen, it turns out—helps them inside. He offers them a room in the hotel for a few nights, including a bathroom with hot running water. While Loreda and Anthony enjoy a hot shower, Elsa goes back out with Jack to help more of the migrants to safety.