- Peekay makes the final leg of his journey alone and doesn't see his grandpa waiting for him at the station at Barberton.
- His mother shows up and takes him to Pastor Mulvery's car to take him home. He finds out not only that he has turned six at some point, but also that he no longer has a nanny. This is very distressing because he loved Nanny very much.
- Pastor Mulvery and Peekay's mother start talking a lot like Pik Botha did about the Lord, which is new for Peekay.
- They arrive at a home Peekay has never seen before, but that is full of their furniture from the farm. Peekay's grandpa is there, and tells the boy that all of the chickens had to be killed. At least Granpa Cook wasn't the only unlucky chicken in this story.
- Peekay goes to sleep, and in the morning finds the kitchen cold and empty. He goes for a walk in the garden, which is full of beautiful roses, and finds some mulberries to eat for breakfast.
- Peekay explores and finds a hill where he can see the whole town, including the prison.
- When he gets back he finds his grandpa in the garden, and asks him where Nanny is. Grandpa starts talking about how life is made up of beginnings and ends, and Peekay fears that Nanny, too, has died.
- Then grandpa keeps talking, and Peekay realizes he's not talking about Nanny at all, but about his wife, Peekay's grandmother, who had died giving birth to his mother. After she died grandpa couldn't stand being with her roses, so he went to the farm to start over.
- Richard, the grandmother's brother, had come from England and taken care of the roses until he died, when grandpa decided to go back.
- Finally grandpa tells Peekay that he'll have to ask his mother about Nanny, and that it has to do with her new religion.
- Back in the kitchen Peekay finds the twin kitchen servants, Dee and Dum, from the farm. Is this a reference to Alice in Wonderland? He is very happy, and while they won't tell him what happened to Nanny they do tell him that she is still alive.
- Peekay takes a bath, and then finds out that his mother has become a seamstress for the town. She works hard because the family is having a hard time making ends meet. He decides to ask her about Nanny, and she explains that she had to be sent back to Zululand for being a heathen.