Orleanna thinks back to the beginning of her relationship with Nathan. The United States entered World War II soon after they were married and Nathan was drafted. He was sent to the Philippines, where he received a head wound and was taken to a hospital. Meanwhile the rest of his company was captured and died on the Death March from Bataan. The incident impacted Nathan deeply, causing him to have "a suspicion of his own cowardice from which he would never recover." When he returned home to Orleanna, Nathan threw himself into his preaching, traveling throughout the South spreading the Word. Finally, when Orleanna was pregnant with Rachel, they settled in Bethlehem, Georgia. Less than two years after Rachel was born, Orleanna had the twins and her life became consumed by motherhood and housekeeping. She comments, "For six years, from age nineteen until I turned twenty-five, I did not sleep uninterrupted through a single night . . . And you wonder why I didn't rise up and revolt against Nathan? I felt lucky to get my shoes on the right feet, that's why."
In 1960, after Leah and Nathan return from the Independence ceremonies in Leopoldville, the Prices try to adjust to their changed status in the village. They no longer receive money or supplies from the Mission League and are therefore reliant upon the few supplies they have and what they can forage. Orleanna and Ruth May remain sick in bed most of the time, leaving Rachel, Leah, and Adah to take charge of the household. As they try to cook and clean, they realize just how hard their mother worked to keep them fed and healthy.
Leah is embarrassed by her family's lack of practical knowledge and even sometimes "pictured a father with shiny black arms pulling fish from the river and a mother with dark, heavy breasts pounding manioc in a wooden trough." One day Anatole comes to visit. He brings the family a rabbit for supper, as well as some news that one of the Congo's provinces (Katanga) has seceded from the new Republic of Congo. Apparently, there is unrest in Katanga because Lumumba is reluctant to make business deals with the Americans and Europeans. Lumumba has asked for help from the United Nations and is threatening to ask the Soviet Union for help if the United Nations doesn't offer assistance.
