which they discreetly communicate to each other about the horrible event that had come to pass in the apartment. La Maga is excluded from the conversation, but she finally realizes that her son has died when she tries to give him a dose of his medicine. She becomes hysterical, and the chaos that Oliveira had feared breaks loose. La Maga goes to Horacio for support, but he either cannot or does not want to comfort her, so he remains silent and decides to leave the apartment. Later, a wake is held for the baby. All of the members attend, except Horacio, who is once again wandering the streets of Paris without a destination. When he finally returns to the apartment, various days have passed and la Maga has disappeared. Gregorovius, who is now living in the apartment, implies that la Maga may have returned to her native Montevideo, but Horacio doubts that she has the means to afford the trip. He feigns disinterest, but he suspects that la Maga may have committed suicide after the wake. Another possibility is that she had gone to stay with Pola (who had been diagnosed with breast cancer. While walking along the bank of the Seine, Horacio runs into an indigent person who he and la Maga had met before, though Horacio does not recall the specific details. Having nowhere to go, Horacio decides to sit and talk with the beggar for a time. Her name, Horacio remembers, is Emmanuele. He accepts the woman's request to buy wine and drink together. Both end up intoxicated below a bridge. Emmanuele attempts to give Horacio oral sex, but the police arrive and arrest them. They are taken to the police station along with two pederasts. During the journey, Oliveira continues to reflect on his search for unity and his relationship with la Maga. The pederasts, meanwhile, argue about a kaleidoscope. They note that the "beautiful patterns" inside are only visible when the lighting is correct. The first part of the book ends with Oliveira's intuition that heaven is not a place above the Earth, but on the surface of it. However, people tend to approach it in a similar manner to the way children play hopscotch. Plot (chapters 37–56) Chapters 37 to 56 are collected under the heading "From this Side", and the action takes place in Argentina. It opens with a brief introduction to the