Ian’s mother had been his father’s nurse as well as wife, which leaves a job opening that inevitably, after one nurse stays the summer and flees the winter, falls to Ian. It irritates Ian but eventually he accepts it. There is another nurse who helps his father during regular office hours, but emergencies and off-hour calls fall to Ian.

Ian turns 17 in this chapter and Laura Dunn makes him a cake, which instigates his first real conversation with her.

This chapter also introduces Ian’s girlfriend, Cathy. In Ian’s mind, their relationship is an accident of happenstance that he is willing to go along with. Ian also reveals his fear of sex, born not of nervousness or insecurity but from the fear of pregnancy, and that getting a girl pregnant would trap him in Struan.

For his birthday, his mother gives him a jacket he never wears, while his father gives him a beautiful wooden canoe. Ian loves the canoe, but thinks it a strange gift for someone who is leaving (as Ian plans to do) in a few months. Ian suspects his father may have unconsciously given it to him so he would have some reason to come back to Struan.