How It All Goes Down
- Domenico drags Ignazia back home, where they sleep in separate bedrooms, but she's expected to "visit" (45.2) him on weekends.
- He gets busier and busier, helping local politicians try to get the Italian vote; while he's busy, Ignazia mostly mopes around the house.
- One day, he finds a little pebble in his polenta, and he wonders if she put it there on purpose.
- That night, he leaves work early, and finds his wife in bed with someone else: Prosperine. "The two of them, clinging to each other like monkeys" (45.31).
- Prosperine runs, but Domenico borrows a police dog (seriously) and tracks her to a nearby fishing shack.
- He convinces the mayor to arrest Prosperine and have her committed at the local asylum.
- The next year, Ignazia and Concettina disappear. Domenico can't find them anywhere.
- They turn up at the frozen lake: Ignazia drowned both herself and her daughter.
- No, wait… They find Concettina hiding in the shack. She is alive, having managed to escape and survive.
- Domenico concludes his story by talking about how his homely hare-lipped daughter is "not a bad girl" (45.95) who cooks and cleans and is quiet.
- He has the audacity to conclude his memoir by writing "Penance. Humility. May God Almight save my soul!" (45.99).