- Boughton and Ames watch fireflies in the grass.
- Boughton quotes a verse.
- Ames feels inspired.
- Jack Boughton, also known as John Ames Boughton, calls. He's in St Louis. He plans to come home.
- Jack is the most beloved child of the Boughtons. He's also the most troubled.
- Ames wakes up in the dark and decides to go for a walk. He leaves a note to be safe. Well, safer. He's old.
- Ames's wife wants to move his books to the parlor so he doesn't have to climb stairs to get them. Even picking up his son causes him difficulty and worries his wife.
- Ames's grandfather got into the Union Army as a chaplain. He lost his Greek New Testament during a rout. It was sent to Ames's father shortly before the two of them went in search of the grave.
- Ames's wife studies Sunday evenings, mostly so she can teach their son when Ames is gone.
- Switching to a note about his childhood, Ames remarks on a murder that was committed with a bowie knife. A farmer was killed.
- The knife was thrown into the river. The owner was almost hanged, but they couldn't prove his guilt.
- The townsfolk were scared because they didn't know who to be scared of.
- This story relates to another about Ames accompanying his father to throw his grandfather's pistol into a river. They buried it instead, initially with a bundle of the grandfather's sermons and shirts, until they finally remove these other items.
- Later, Ames's father unearthed the gun and threw it into a river.
- Ames suspects the gun and his grandfather were involved in some crime.
- Ames's mother cleans the shirts.
- Ames asks his father what his grandfather had done. His father won't say, but he gives the impression that it was some kind of a crime.
- Ames assumes that they're all involved in a cover-up.
- After the murder of the farmer, the kids don't want to milk the cow or do their chores. Productivity is lost, and prosperity is drained.
- During one of his father's sermons, Ames's grandfather walks out. Ames goes to find him. He tells little Ames to return to church.
- Dinner that evening is awkward.
- Ames's father and grandfather disagree about the war and the nature of preaching. The younger man seems a disappointment to the older.
- Soon after this, the grandfather leaves Gilead for good. He leaves a note, which Ames keeps in his Bible.
- Later, Ames learns that his grandfather was involved in pre-war violence in Kansas.
- Ames's father, a pacifist, took poorly to the celebrations that accompanied the start of the First World War.
- Glory tells Ames that Jack Boughton has come home.
- Boughton had named his son for Ames, as if he were Ames's son: John Ames Boughton.
- When Ames and his father are in Kansas, his father tells him a bit about his grandfather. His grandfather preached the righteousness of the war, and Ames's father went to sit with the Quakers on the Sabbath.
- The grandfather had preached a lot of men into the war. The results took a toll on his church. Afterward, he wrote letters to the War Department, trying to get veterans and widows their bounties and pensions. During this time, he was close to being an absent father.
- Back in the present, Jack Boughton pays a visit. He introduces himself to Ames's wife as John Ames Boughton. This surprises her.
- Jack calls Ames "Papa" and helps him down the steps.
- Ames's son sees how old his father is.
- Ames remembers helping his father clean up after a church burned down.
- Taking a break, Ames eats a biscuit with ash on it. He later comes to think of it as communion.
- Ames thinks about his grandfather, specifically about the visions of God he claimed to have and the time he was teased by children.
- Next, Ames thinks about his father coming into the church and seeing a banner comparing war to God's Purifying Fire. This sets him off, and he sits with the Quakers. He later regretted this, but he couldn't stand listening to his father preach, gun at his side.
- In the present, Ames comes home for lunch and finds Jack playing catch with his son. He reflects more on receiving charred bread from his father. He hopes his son remembers receiving communion from him.
- Back in Kansas, Ames's father tells him about the time John Brown came to town and his grandfather went off with him.
- A soldier followed, in pursuit.
- It's likely that the soldier was killed by his grandfather.
- Ames's father feels regret for not going out to look for the soldier.
- Sometimes, Ames's grandfather would arrive back in town moments before the church service. He'd fire his gun in the air to announce his return. Then he'd preach about judgment and grace.
- Ames meets with trustees. He makes suggestions for the church, but he suspects they'll ignore them.
- The people want to build a new church.
- Listening to the radio, Ames decides to dance to the waltz that plays.