On the last night around Fabian's kitchen table, Miranda, Portia, Fabian, and Paul debate whether and how to intervene in Landfall's collapse. Fabian doubts any intervention can end well, but Portia argues for direct action: the colony's system is broken and must be stripped back and rebuilt. Miranda resists that view, insisting that Imiri culture and difference have value, and fearing that outside rescue will erase what makes the people themselves.

Paul silently supports Miranda through the strange writings and diagrams his children thrust forward. When Miranda looks at one slate, the unfamiliar notation briefly seems to translate itself through a deep, disorienting recognition. Miranda says Paul agrees that Imiri life should be preserved, but Portia counters that any intervention will either reshape the colony artificially or preserve only its slow death.

The next day Fabian goes to a nearby farm to repair harvest machinery, and Portia leaves restlessly, saying she is going hunting. Miranda stays inside, disturbed by Landfall's hunger, refugees, armed militia, and hardening social divisions. While imagining how she might teach the next generation to understand peaceful contact with beings from other worlds, Miranda answers the door to a begging farm family; Paul gives them food despite Miranda's warning that established locals will punish such dependence.

When Miranda next opens the door, a militia-led mob has arrived with a beaten Fabian. The mob seizes Miranda and Paul, while Paul's children fight desperately and cleverly to protect him before being dragged away. Paul cries out as if the children are part of himself, and their alien-sounding answering cries horrify the crowd; a militiaman strikes Paul to silence him.

The prisoners are marched to the dead First Tree in town, where ropes are being hung from its branches. Miranda learns that the farm Fabian worked on was attacked, closer to Landfall than any previous raid, and that the mob blames supposed Seccers and outsiders. Miranda realizes the raids likely come from within the community, driven by fear and scarcity, but the crowd's need for enemies and the militia's enjoyment of power make truth irrelevant.

Portia arrives free and armed, attempting a violent rescue despite being alone against half the town. She kills two men, wounds others, and fights toward Fabian with inhuman speed and skill, but a gunshot finally hits her shoulder. After Portia is clubbed down, Miranda sees four nooses hanging from the dead First Tree and understands that Portia's failed rescue has not worsened their fate so much as revealed how desperate it already was.