- The group pulls up to a motel that, in addition to room vacancies, is advertising beer. The narrator suggests that the rest of the group go in to have a drink while she takes off somewhere else.
- It turns out she's going to visit Paul, who was-is a friend of her family. She asks if her father has turned up, but Paul says no.
- Paul invites the narrator in for some tea. His wife, who is referred to only as "Madame," is also there. The narrator tries to use French to address Madame, but feels awkward about it. The encounter launches her into memories of her mother and her mother's encounters with Madame (her mother had died of some unnamed illness some time before).
- She also asks Paul more questions about her father's disappearance. Apparently, he was just gone one day; Paul went to visit him and found the door to his house open, and the boat still there. He told the police, who looked around—but found nothing.
- Paul asks if the narrator's husband is there with her. (Wait, what? We thought she had a boyfriend.) She says no.
- Through the narrator's inner monologue, we learn the explanation: she had been married, but she was now divorced. She had never bothered to tell her parents the latter.
- We then learn that the narrator also has a baby (she's waiting for Madame to ask about it), but she claims (inwardly—Madame never does ask) that she left "it" in "a different city" with her ex. Hmm…
- The chapter ends with the narrator hopeful that the previous search parties have missed something, and she'll find her father waiting for them when they get to the cabin.