This is the darkest part of Flora's story. Everything she has come to love seems about to be taken from her. Ulysses is in terrible danger, her family is in pieces, and her old enemy — her own cynicism — comes creeping back, whispering that she was a fool ever to hope. Flora is gripped by anguish and, for a while, feels utterly desolate. But something has changed in her. The cynical girl who began the story would have given up; this Flora does not. With real fortitude she refuses to despair. She lets herself become vulnerable at last, setting down the armour of cynicism and admitting, openly, how much she cares — for Ulysses, for her father, even for the difficult mother who has hurt her. She is not alone in this. Around her, the other lonely characters are opening up too. In a candid, painful confession, William Spiver finally tells the truth about why he was sent away from home. Dr. Meescham offers her gentle wisdom about a capacious heart. Out of sheer desperation to save her squirrel, Flora becomes defiant — and discovers that the opposite of cynicism is not foolishness, but courage. All is almost lost. Almost.