Part 3: Ceremony, Chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4 Summary

Iris has left Hammond and in the autumn of 1962 is in her junior year at a college in Syracuse, NY, where she is befriended by an art professor named Dr. Byron Savage. Iris rarely thinks of her life in Hammond and her only tie now is her uncle Leslie, who graciously borrowed money to pay for Persia's hospital bills, which Iris vows to repay one day. Iris sometimes recalls the sadness that Persia had been only thirty-eight when she died and that Duke had left Hammond soon after Persia's death leaving no forwarding address and no offer to help with the hospital expenses.

Iris revels in her new life, especially the privacy afforded her in her comfortable little room in the boardinghouse where she lives. For the first time in her life, Iris is in control of...