Latour becomes determined to build a cathedral in Santa Fe. He enlists the financial aid of Don Antonio Olivares, a wealthy Mexican rancher with Dona Isabella, his American wife from Kentucky who was raised as a Southern belle in Louisiana. The couple have a daughter, Inez, who possesses none of her mother's beauty but sings beautifully. At a New Year's party thrown by the Olivares, Don Olivares pledges enough money for Latour to build the cathedral. It is also where the character of Don Manuel Chavez is introduced to the reader. A master marksman, Chavez hunted Indians for sport as a young man. Surviving an Indian attack that killed all fifty of his companions, including his brother, Chavez walked sixty miles to the future location of Fort Defiance. A follower of Padre Martinez, Chavez distrusts Latour.
Olivares dies before bequeathing the promised cathedral monies to Latour. His death begins a prolonged legal battle between Dona Isabella and Olivares's brothers. The brothers claim that Inez is too old to be the daughter of Dona Isabella, which Dona Isabella will not refute for fear of revealing her age. Latour convinces her to reject her vanity for the greater purpose, and she consents. She eventually wins the lawsuit.
Following the Gadsden Purchase, which allowed the United States to annex areas of southern New Mexico and Arizona, Father Vaillant travels to Mexico to negotiate the establishment of parish boundaries in the area. On his return, he is stricken with malaria. Latour and Jacinto ride to Arizona, find Vaillant, and bring him back to Santa Fe to recuperate. It is the month of May, and Latour's orchard and garden are in full bloom. Vaillant welcomes the respite in Latour's garden as an opportunity to meditate on the Virgin Mary as he had done when assigned to the Great Lakes region of the Midwest. Vaillant considers May to be the month when all important events occur in his life.
