The chapter is presented as a series of documents: Cleo Allfrey's travel statement for the Resettlement Administration Historical Section, which traces her route from Washington, D.C., across Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Nebraska, ending in Uz, Nebraska, on April 22, 1935.

An April 15 letter from her supervisor Roy E. Stryker greets her arrival in Nebraska with mild relief, and requests photographs of everyday dryland farming life west of the hundredth meridian for the Department of Agriculture. Stryker apologizes that the enclosed check is small due to budget limitations.

A general memo to all R.A. photographers follows, listing detailed subjects Stryker wants documented: small-town life, rural homes and fences, spring planting, weather effects, and the general feel of the land.

By April 25, Stryker writes again, pressing Allfrey for the missing Nebraska negatives and urging faster production. He questions her apology about the "ghostliness" of her recent images, suggesting the issue may lie in her developing process rather than the heat, since other photographers like Rothstein and Evans have not had similar problems.

On May 1, Allfrey replies tersely, informing Stryker that two of the five boxes she is sending are marked UZ, NEBRASKA, and that she has decided to remain in the town to continue documenting an "inexplicable occurrence."