The chapter opens with a flashback to Petruchio's meeting with the mahata in which he tells the story of how he and the others escaped from the prison. He tells them that he was a mechanic and that he eventually fell in love with a young woman. She was a mahata and he was the professor. When she joined them, she did not speak, and they were unable to tell her about their escape. The chapter ends with a soliloquy in which Petruchie asks the reader if they will ever be ready to "fight for something worthwhile"