Greenwood

Lomax is called back to Holt’s country estate after the search party discovers the corpse of Euphemia Baxter resting against a tree. Lomax deduces that Euphemia died of bleeding during her escape. He orders the party to keep searching for the baby and the diary, reminding them to maintain discretion around Mr. Holt.

Everett meets with a man who is interested in taking the baby. The man, who was recommended by Blank, supposedly lives with his wife and has recently lost a child. He is unaffected, however, by Everett’s concern about the decrepit state of his house. He remembers to ask for the diary.

Everett celebrates getting rid of the baby over dinner but remains bothered by the state of the man’s house. He begins to doubt the man’s motivations, believing that he is working with Blank to get Holt’s reward money.

Blank calls Lomax to tell him he has the baby. Lomax feigns ignorance but offers reward money for the baby and the diary.

Everett returns to the man’s house to retrieve the baby and the diary. When the man resists, Everett hits him and runs off with the baby and the book. He steals a car and drives to the rail yard. When a freight train passes by, he stows away in a boxcar. The darkness of the car reminds him of his brother’s blindness.

Harris and Everett Greenwood became estranged when Everett reneged on a promise to return home and accept a large stake in Harris’s company. Harris now believes that Everett is dead after a barrister uncovered Everett’s criminal record, which suddenly went cold after several years.

Harris, the founder of the successful Greenwood Timber Company, inspects a camp belonging to poachers who are undermining Harris’s logging rights on a forest island. To retaliate against the poachers and his industrial rivals, Harris sets the island’s forest on fire, assured that the trees will eventually grow back.

Blank reports Everett’s escape to Lomax. Lomax beats Blank down when he tries to pass off a false diary for some of the reward money. Lomax returns to the woods and finds Everett’s syrup buckets on the trees. He finds Everett’s shack but no other clues.

Lomax reports his findings to Holt, who promises to clear Lomax’s mortgage if he can retrieve the diary and the baby. If Lomax fails, Holt threatens to take everything he owns and expel his family from Saint John. He urges Lomax to prioritize the diary over the baby if given the choice.

Everett avoids talking to the baby until another man comes and steals one of his boots. He feeds her blackberry jam and gets off the train at a stop to wash her soiled clothes and refill a jar of water.

A man comes up to Everett and tells him to get off his property, an orchard neighboring the train yard. Everett pleads to let him back on the boxcar to retrieve his belongings, but the man denies him. Everett elbows his face and runs back to the train before it leaves.

Harris works from his private mansion. His assistant, Mort Baumgartner, reports that rainfall extinguished the island fire, saving half of the forest. Later that evening, Harris learns that his company may soon close a deal with an important Japanese client. Harris contemplates traveling to Japan to finalize the terms. He also considers hiring someone to describe the visual qualities of Japan to him on this trip.

Everett disembarks from the train when he sees a patrol of Mounties, the Canadian police, waiting at the next junction. He worries that he has damaged the baby’s skull as they tumble into a ditch.

Everett shows the baby to a Quebecois woman living nearby. The woman reassures him and feeds her goat’s milk. She then points out that the baby is crying not because of the dent in her skull but because of a rash on her legs. The woman cleans the baby. Everett meets the woman’s husband and thanks him for their hospitality, offering his services for work. The couple feeds and shelters Everett afterward. He plans to sneak away the following morning.

Lomax leaves for Montreal to search for the baby. Suffering from his usual aches, he smokes another opium-laced cigar to relieve the pain. He remembers Euphemia early in her pregnancy and the pleasant relationship they had while he looked after her. When Lomax searches the train, a stowaway suggests that Everett might have taken a freight boxcar train and passed through Toronto.

Harris interviews candidates for the position of a describer. The last interviewee is Liam Feeney, an Irish poet who is rather flippant. Harris tries to coax him to say more about himself, testing his capacity for language, but when Feeney fails to play along, Harris calls out the condescending quality of his answers. Feeney makes it clear that he is merely being honest with Harris, which Harris respects. Harris tasks him with reading a passage from any book in his library. Feeney reads a verse by the English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, which moves Harris so much that he hires him and urges him not to be so irreverent again.

Everett shaves and cuts his hair short. He is about to leave for Saint John when he hears his hosts arguing. They come up to his room and tell him that the Mounties are searching for a man and a baby. They send Everett away with the child. Before they leave, the woman gifts Everett a cake of Castile soap.

Everett and the baby sneak onto another freight train, eluding Mountie detection. Everett is unable to console the baby as she cries.

Lomax searches Toronto for signs of Everett, disguising himself as a workman to blend in. While his search is largely unfruitful, a Mountie tells him about Everett’s appearance at the orchard. Lomax deduces that Everett is moving westward. Lomax’s wife, Lavern, telegrams him to say that they are running out of money. Under pressure, he sends her some of the stipend that Holt has dedicated to his travel expenses.

Everett arrives in Toronto and struggles to find accommodations in the city. He sneaks the baby into a rooming house and then goes looking for work the next morning. A man named Sinclair Monahan promises to give Everett a series of odd jobs. They leave the baby in the care of a woman named Mrs. Papadopoulos.

Everett carries out the illegal jobs that Monahan gives him, including hauling and loading. Everett takes Monahan’s advice to bury his money instead of depositing it in the bank. He continues to care for the baby but considers paying Mrs. Papadopoulos to keep her permanently. He daydreams of the baby living a better life while he goes on to be her secret benefactor.

Holt complains about Lomax’s travel expenses, which pressures the latter to make progress on his search. He goes out and buys opium to relieve his stress and pain. He smokes it outside, settling on some garbage to relax. When he wakes up, he spots the baby’s flannel hanging from the clothesline above him.

Harris boards a Transpacific steamer to Japan with Baumgartner and Feeney, who poetically describes the view from the ship and entertains him with poetry.

In Tokyo, the three are placed in a temporary guesthouse before moving to their proper accommodations. That night, Harris is mortified to hear Feeney sleeping through the paper walls of the house. They go to the Imperial Palace the following morning, where they meet with their clients, the Japanese Railway Command Group. After an elaborate opening ceremony, they discuss the officers’ material needs for train car construction.

Baumgartner becomes impatient when he learns that negotiations will take place with yet another group of officers, prompting Harris to send him away. Harris and Feeney move to the Imperial Hotel later that evening, occupying two suites at Baumgartner’s suggestion.

Lomax investigates the rooming house and sees a man matching Everett’s description. Everett claims that the flannel belongs to a girl he’s seeing, who happens to have a child. Lomax plays along with this story but hints that Holt is willing to pay a generous reward for the baby and the diary. When Lomax tells him that the child’s mother is dead, Everett expresses his concern over the baby being looked after by her father. He then runs off, moving too quickly for Lomax to catch him. Lomax warns him about the consequences, but Everett answers that he has nothing to lose.

With Baumgartner away, Feeney is tasked with helping the negotiations. While Feeney continues to act irreverently, he manages to restrain Harris when Harris becomes impatient with the negotiators. Feeney expresses his doubts about the Japanese officers’ intentions for expanding their military with new railway assets. Harris pushes on with the deal anyway, pressuring the Japanese with a competing offer.

To celebrate, the two enjoy an extravagant dinner and then go to see a movie. Harris flirts with Feeney during the screening, and though Feeney does not initially return his affections, he eventually flirts back.

Everett is terrified by his encounter with Lomax. He relocates to a new private room with the baby but returns to the rooming house to collect his other belongings. Lomax leaves a telegram to threaten him.

Everett remains in Toronto for work but is frustrated by the added expense of the new room and the baby’s hunger. While he takes the baby out for a walk, a sex worker offers to breastfeed the baby for him. By the following month, Everett retrieves his savings and leaves town with the baby.

Lomax visits the Archives of Canada to pull up Everett’s military records. The librarian does not find any record of Everett’s service but locates records for Harris Greenwood. Lomax reviews the file and sees Everett’s photo.

He prepares to report this development to Holt but learns through a telegram that Holt has frozen his expense account and entrusted the search to a detective named Art McSorley. Holt warns of the consequences if Lomax doesn’t return to Saint John. Lomax decides he will travel to Vancouver instead to wait for Everett at Harris’s residence. He feigns a break-in in his hotel room to procure travel money from the concierge and then uses it on a first-class train ticket.

Harris and Feeney sail back to Canada, maintaining discretion whenever Feeney visits Harris’s cabin at night. Their personal relationship grows as Feeney shares details of his life. Harris is aware of the scrutiny they’ll both face when they return to Vancouver but is not worried because he knows what it means to be an outcast as a man who is blind.

The baby falls sick on the train. Everett tries his best to care for her and starts calling her “Pod.” They transfer from a closed boxcar to an open one so that Pod can breathe better in the fresh air. He affectionately tells her the names of things on the train and then starts sharing stories of his early life. Pod soon recovers from her fever.