This chapter opens with a flashback to the events of the previous chapter, in which a young man named Caius learns that he is the illegitimate child of a prostitute and his wife. Caius's wife, the prostitute, has died, and Caius has been left to fend for himself. He has been forced to leave his home and his family in order to support his illegitimate child, and he has no choice but to return to Caius.