Summary

That evening the men from the camp enter the barracks and rape the women. Boris tells Cilka that no one else but him will touch her. Josie is angry that Cilka did not do more to ward off the attack. The novel flashbacks to 1940, and Cilka and Magda are walking in their hometown. Two boys make innuendos about Cilka’s beauty, but Cilka does not understand them. Her older sister drags her home before curfew. Back in the gulag, Cilka learns to file patient records, find medications, and to record doctor’s examination notes. At the end of the workday, the women find their belongings overturned in the hut by guards looking for contraband.

In Chapter 6 Josie’s burn heals and she returns to coal work. The men invade the women’s barracks nightly. In Chapter 7 Cilka is instructed to take a patient...