Epilogue Summary and Analysis

In 1942 Halina Wind, a twenty-one-year-old Jewish woman, was sent by her parents into hiding after Nazis murdered most of the inhabitants of her Polish town. For fourteen months Halina lived in a wet underground prison, never seeing the sun. Years later, Halina's son David worked at the Wilmington News Journal where he met James McBride.

James is an usher at David's wedding. James wears a black tuxedo and white yarmulke. Ruth sits in the audience, watching the Jewish wedding, the kind of wedding her parents wanted for her. When the wedding is over, James and Ruth walk outside into the rain. She has been reminiscing about the Jewish wedding and how it hasn't changed since she was a girl.

She lets go of James's arm and stares up at the synagogue entrance, lost in thought. Then she turns and hurries toward...