The chapter opens with a flashback to the Ming family's time in the Ming country. Ming's father had been in the dark about his wife's affair with another man, and his mother had had an affair of her own with the son of a tyrant in the country. She had come to see Ming and his father because the tyrant was looking for her. Ming explains that his mother was arrogant, and had tried to kill her father, but Ming had persuaded him to go back to China with his wife and child. When Ming was under treatment for his mother's illness, she had set people in motion to lead Ming into the wrong direction, and in the end, neither Ming nor his father died. The chapter ends with a description of the situation in Ming country, in which the Mings are the main victims of the tyrant's power.