The narrator, posing as Sadie, drives the rented Škoda up an overgrown road to the abandoned Château de Gaume to deliver provisions to Nadia, who is camping in a maintenance shed beside the greenhouse with her truffle pig Bernadette while preparing for the truffle-hunting season. Sadie has cultivated a rapport with Nadia, hoping to use her as an asset.

Sadie observes the decrepit château: a forbidding gray fortress with four spired towers, broken windows, a rotted roof, and a dry reflecting pool flanked by headless marble cherubs. She recalls Bruno's letter mentioning that the Germans tried but failed to burn the castle down during their 1944 retreat.

Nadia, a self-identified hardcore Zadiste who left the ZAD under unstated circumstances, lives in sub-squalor with a propane stove and laundry line. As she bossily sorts the groceries, she warns Sadie that there is talk about her at the Moulinards: Florence has said Sadie curries favor with Pascal's inner circle and ignores the rank and file. Sadie momentarily fears her secret tryst with René has been exposed, but realizes it has not.

Nadia advises Sadie on how to avoid being purged, ironic given Nadia's own apparent expulsion. Sadie leaves with a mental list of names Nadia provided—people doing the actual work at the commune whom she should befriend to secure her position.