Miranda reflects that, despite spending a season in Landfall as a teacher, she has not fully understood the colony well enough to blend in. The adults quietly watch for outsiders, farmers keep guns and tusked guard-pigs, and everyone treats the unnamed threat of "Seccers" as real without clearly discussing what Seccers are.

Miranda and her companions have debated whether Seccers are actual hidden people, a superstition, or something else. Miranda privately doubts any simple explanation because Landfall shows suspicion but not open preparation for war. The colony's dispersed farms make infiltration possible, yet Miranda, Fabian, Portia, and Paul have all become more visible than is safe through their useful skills and odd behavior.

That evening Miranda returns to Fabian's repair shop, where Fabian has finished a handmade telescope and gathered Portia, Paul, and the children. Miranda asks Portia about the impossible birds Miranda and Liff have seen, and Portia confirms that Imir should have no birds. Fabian then shows everyone a bright moving point in the sky: the ship that Captain Heorest Holt brought from Earth to Imir.

Later Miranda visits Liff's farm to learn more about rural life and because Miranda worries about Liff. While trying to build trust by offering Fabian's help with a broken tractor, Miranda raises Liff's claim that Liff saw her grandfather. Liff's family confirms that the grandfather in question is Heorest Holt, whom they say died twenty years ago, and Uncle Molder dismisses Liff as dreamy and unstable.

Miranda realizes she has misunderstood something important about Landfall's history, kinship language, or both, because Captain Heorest Holt should belong to the founding past yet is treated as Liff's grandfather. When Miranda shows Liff an old image of Holt, Liff insists she saw him enter the woods to visit the Witch and that he is still there. Liff's parents react badly to Miranda's involvement, forcing Miranda to leave with more questions than answers.