In this chap­ter, Par­vana ven­tures into the mar­ket­place with­out her father, feel­ing unset­tled by his absence. Women aren’t allowed in shops, and Par­vana grap­ples with the restric­tions imposed by the Tal­iban. She ulti­mate­ly decides to buy bread from the bak­er, cov­er­ing her face with her chador to main­tain some anonymi­ty. While wait­ing for her order, she reflects on how hun­gry she is, almost yearn­ing to devour a whole loaf.

Par­vana’s moment of peace is shat­tered when a Tal­ib con­fronts her aggres­sive­ly, ques­tion­ing her pres­ence and attire. The sol­dier demands to know her male guardians and threat­ens pun­ish­ment for her behav­ior. In an act of des­per­a­tion, Par­vana defends her­self, yelling at him and run­ning away as he rais­es his stick against her. Dur­ing her hur­ried escape, she knocks over veg­eta­bles in her path, clutch­ing the warm bread as she dash­es through the streets, deter­mined to evade the sol­dier.

She col­lides with a famil­iar woman, Mrs. Weera, who rec­og­nizes Par­vana. The woman ques­tions her hur­ried demeanor and reas­sures her, encour­ag­ing her to calm down. They walk togeth­er, with Mrs. Weera vis­it­ing Par­vana’s home for a long-over­due chat with her moth­er. Par­vana reluc­tant­ly leads the way, feel­ing appre­hen­sive about her moth­er’s con­di­tion.

Upon their arrival, Noo­ria, Parvana’s sis­ter, ini­tial­ly only notices the bread. After Mrs. Weera iden­ti­fies her­self, relief wash­es over Noo­ria, who is relieved to have anoth­er adult in the house­hold to help shoul­der their bur­dens. Despite the chaos, Mrs. Weera steps in with author­i­ty, tak­ing charge as she learns about the fam­i­ly’s strug­gles, from their mother’s ill­ness to the lack of resources.

Mrs. Weer­a’s ener­getic dis­po­si­tion con­trasts with the fam­i­ly’s somber mood and shows an unwa­ver­ing resolve to sup­port Par­vana and her fam­i­ly. Despite the hard­ships, Par­vana car­ries water from out­side, ful­fill­ing her respon­si­bil­i­ties even as exhaus­tion sets in. She expe­ri­ences a par­tic­u­lar­ly tense moment when she tries to drink unboiled water, only to be scold­ed by Noo­ria. The chap­ter con­cludes with a sense of ten­ta­tive hope as they share a meal and Mrs. Weera comes to stay for the night, sug­gest­ing they may need new strate­gies to cope with their cir­cum­stances .