This chapter opens with Lenina and Henry taking off in their helicopter when the Obstacle Golf Course closes. They pass over Burnham Beeches — a satirical allusion to Shakespeare — and then the Slough Crematorium. As they discuss death and "phosphorus recovery" — "we can go on being socially useful even after we're dead" — Lenina reveals her class prejudices, especially against Epsilons.
They fly to Westminster Abbey Cabaret, where they dance the evening away to the Malthusian Blues. Despite the soma they consume, Lenina remembers her contraception in preparation for a night of pneumatic sex.
The second half of the chapter follows Bernard as he flies past the chiming Big Henry — the Fordian version of Big Ben — to the Fordson Community Singery. There he participates — without really believing — in a kind of religious service that includes such rituals as the sign of the T, blessed soma, and solidarity hymns. Under the influence of the sacramental soma, the ceremony dissolves into an "orgy-porgy" of sex.
But while the others find the "calm ecstasy of achieved consummation," Bernard feels only more isolated in his "separateness" — "much more alone, indeed, more hopelessly himself than he had ever been in his life before."
