Miranda is seized and dragged onto the scaffold while Molder questions the crowd about her companions. Townspeople identify Fabian, Paul, Portia, and the children with hostility, turning private grievances and prejudice into public accusation. A group of armed militia and angry residents heads toward Fabian’s Fix-it place to capture the others.

Miranda tries to reason with Molder, but Molder treats Liff’s recognition of Miranda as proof that Miranda and her companions are outsiders who have poisoned the town. Liff stands nearby overwhelmed with guilt, avoiding Miranda’s eyes, while Molder demands a confession and another militiaman brings rope.

Facing the threat of hanging, Miranda decides to break cover because Miranda has long wanted to help Landfall openly. Miranda begins explaining that the group is not from another Imir colony or from the Enkidu, then settles on the simpler claim that they are from Old Earth. Drawing on inherited or remembered human histories, Miranda insists they came looking for family and can provide medicine, crop help, and ecological repair.

Molder barely responds to the mention of Earth, which has lost meaning for him and the Imiri townspeople. Miranda pleads that the important point is their ability to help, but any chance of persuading Molder collapses when the posse returns with Fabian’s wagon, two dead men, Portia shot and laid out, and Fabian and Paul beaten and bound.

The children run alongside the prisoners and try to reach their parent, but the militia drives them back. Seeing the dead and wounded hardens Molder’s resolve; Molder declares Miranda’s group evil, orders the prisoners hauled onto the scaffold, and tells Liff to watch the punishment as a lesson. When Molder looks for Liff, however, Liff has disappeared.