Okonkwo finally enjoys a good night's sleep since the death of Ikemefuna, when suddenly, he is awakened by a banging at his door. His wife Ekwefi tells him that Ezinma is dying. Ekwefi's only living child, Ezinma is the light of her life; her nine other children have died in infancy. Ezinma is also a favorite of Okonkwo, and because of her spirit and cleverness, he sometimes wishes that she had been born a boy. Now she lies suffering with fever while Okonkwo gathers leaves, grasses, and barks for medicine.
Ezinma has survived many periods of illness in her life, and people have considered her an evil ogbanje, a child who dies young because she is possessed by an evil spirit that reenters the mother's womb to be born again. But she has lived much longer than Ekwefi's other children, and Ekwefi believes faith will bring the girl a long and happy life. A year ago, she was reassured when a medicine man dug up Ezinma's iyi-uwa, an object buried by ogbanje children. After Ezinma led the medicine man to the exact spot, he dug a deep pit in which he finally found a shiny pebble wrapped in a rag. Ezinma agreed that it was hers. The unearthing of the iyi-uwa was thought to break Ezinma's connection with the ogbanje world, and everyone believed that she would never become sick again.
At last, Okonkwo returns from the forest and prepares the medicine for his daughter, who inhales the fumes from a steaming pot and soon sleeps again.
