Moloka'i

Catherine contemplates how sad the death of a child is, as she thinks about the number of gravestones for children in the Catholic section of the cemetery at Kalaupapa. The girls and Catherine throw a party for Rachel, as she prepares to leave, two months before her eighteenth birthday. Haleola has become sicker, and Rachel moves in to take care of her.

Dr. Goodhue discusses leprosy and its contagiousness, as he gives Rachel another shot of chaulmoogra oil, and he suggests surgery as an experimental treatment. The surgery goes well.

As she recovers, Rachel sees a beautiful new arrival, Leilani, called Lani, who the authorities first send to Bishop Home. She offers to teach Rachel how to braid her hair, and, later, persuades her to go to a party. There, a man attacks Lani, trying to assault her, and Rachel takes Lani to Haleola to tend to her wounds. As Haleola examines Lani’s wounds, Rachel notices that Lani has a penis, and she becomes visibly agitated. Rachel calms down, speaking again to Lani, who explains that she has prayed to become a woman, but, instead, she contracted leprosy.

As Emily and Francine reach eighteen, they move out of Bishop Home and Lani moves in.

Haleola notices the changes in Kalaupapa as recreation becomes possible, from baseball to horse racing. Francine, having taken up horse racing, wins against a Portuguese boy and a native Hawaiian boy, and wins several times in a row. After her latest victory, she takes the girls out for coffee, where Emily teases Rachel for not having a boyfriend. Later, as Rachel considers Emily’s teasing, she has sex with Nahoa after they surf at night. While they have sex three times, Rachel never has an orgasm, and they return to being just friends.

Later, Dr. Goodhue tells Rachel her second snip—the sample of flesh tested for leprosy—has tested negative, and that she can apply to leave Kalaupapa if she has six negative tests in a row. Her father sends her a copy of Jack London’s The Sea Wolf, having replaced dolls with books for presents at Rachel’s request. Rachel recalls that London had journeyed to Kalaupapa more than a year before.

Rachel and Haleola go to Kauhakō, a place Rachel no longer fears because of Moko. There, Haleola explains the relationship between the gods Pele and Namakaokaha’i, sisters who war between each other, with the elder Namakaokaha’i trying to defeat her younger sister. As Haleola explains the gods, Rachel likens their relationship to hers with Sarah.

Catherine finds out her mother has also died by suicide, having taken a lethal dose of laudanum after setting her affairs in order and leaving a note for her children. Catherine talks to Father Maxime, expressing her fear that her mother has damned her own soul and questions if loving someone too much counts as a mortal sin.

Haleola has a series of dreams in late January, presaging her death. She cooks for Rachel and asks to climb the pali so that she can see Kalaupapa in its entirety. That evening, after she sings to Rachel, and Rachel embraces her, Haleola dies.

Catherine considers her anger and grief, as she isolates in her room for more than a day. Leopoldina finally interrupts her to announce that Haleola has died. The morning Rachel finds Haleola dead, she knows instinctively what to do and begins to prepare the body in the traditional way. As Catherine visits, she sees Rachel load shovels and a coffin in a wagon and agrees to join Rachel and her friends as they bury Haleola. They find Keo’s grave, weed around it, and dig a hole next to it so that Haleola can rest next to her first husband. Catherine helps to dig the grave, listening as the Rachel and her friends chant, offering Haleola a traditional burial. Angered that she can’t be at her mother’s grave, Catherine sneaks away. Throwing herself into the sea from a cliff, she attempts to die by suicide. Rachel jumps in to save her, and, though successful, Rachel sees that Catherine’s injuries are severe. She has broken her leg in several places.

In the hospital later, Catherine and Rachel lie in beds next to each other, and Catherine confesses her feelings, her real name (Ruth), and her desire to see her mother and father when she jumped.

Weeks later, the doctor removes Catherine’s cast, and, owing to her severe break, her leg is now shorter. After learning of a possible new law to acknowledge officially the parole of those whose leprosy becomes dormant, Rachel finds out that her third snip has tested negative. At the invitation of the Board of Health, the visitor, Mr. Bonine, introduces movies to Kalaupapa.

The new lighthouse on Kalaupapa opens, and the keepers and their families move to the island. Rachel notices Jake Puehu, one of the assistant keepers, while he’s playing baseball and finds him attractive. She asks Lani how to get his attention and to flirt, and she pretends to read Jack London’s Martin Eden near the lighthouse. Soon she’s engrossed, and Jake asks her what she’s reading. They discuss Jack London. Over the following days, they talk and get to know each other, and then Jake invites her to the lighthouse during one of his shifts. They start to get closer until Jake hesitates, fearful of her condition.

Electric lights come to Moloka’i, joining the light of the lighthouse. At a doctor’s appointment, Rachel discovers that she has a new rash, and, becoming discouraged, she requests transfer to the Federal Leprosy Investigation Station. There, she observes that the doctors and nurses act cold and clinical. On Christmas day, carolers from outside the station sing to them, and the doctors forbid Rachel or her fellow patients from joining them. In the days that follow, as she sees animals being tested, Rachel realizes that she is a subject in their experiments. She dreams that she and Jake have sex, as she becomes healthy, and she climaxes in reality. Awakened, Rachel recognizes how she has run from her disease and she returns to her normal life.

Rachel receives a letter from her father, letting her know that he’s sick. While he wished it were leprosy so he could join her, the doctor diagnoses it as gout and the condition forces him to give up sailing. Emily, likewise, grows ill, and avoids the hospital, choosing to die in Rachel’s care.

After she returns to live with Leilani following Emily’s death, Rachel finds Leilani excitable, and Leilani shows Rachel that she has grown breasts. Her testicles have shrunk, and Rachel becomes worried that Leilani’s transforming body signals worsening health because of leprosy. As they wait for the doctor, Rachel and Leilani see a Japanese man with injuries from a fight, and Leilani asks him if he likes her breasts. Later, Dr. Goodhue affirms that her breasts are real and not tumors—that leprosy has caused her testicles to shrink, but that her subsequent hormonal balance has produced breasts.

Later, as Rachel returns from surfing, she sees the same Japanese man embroiled in a fight during a baseball game. Weeks later, she sees him again, swimming out into the sea. Worried that he can’t swim back, Rachel paddles close to him, and, eventually, convinces him to get on her surfboard. As they paddle back, Rachel asks Kenji questions and finds out he’s educated, the son of Japanese immigrants, whose father converted to Catholicism so that Kenji would have better chances at getting into St. Louis College in Honolulu.

The next day, Kenji waits for Rachel on the beach. Over doughnuts and coffee, they discuss books and their shared interests. Kenji shares that he had a promising career as a stockbroker, until he showed signs of leprosy, and his diagnosis has brought shame to his family. They have sex, and Rachel recognizes their connection.

Leilani grows ill in February, and Dr. Goodhue puts her in isolation, where Rachel can visit in protective gear. Satisfied with her end, Leilani proclaims that she’s satisfied with the time she had as a woman. Leilani dies, and, with Emily’s death fresh in her mind, Rachel grieves another friend.

Henry sets sail to visit Rachel, happy to return to a ship after years of caring for his health on land. Catherine meets Henry at the landing, introducing him to the new regulations that govern contact between those with and those without leprosy. He visits to attend Rachel and Kenji’s wedding, but, except for the ceremony, can only speak to Rachel through bars or glass. He gives her news of her sister and brothers and cannot answer Rachel’s questions about Dorothy.

As Kenji and Henry become acquainted, they talk about Honolulu and Kenji’s family, and the athletic endeavors of Duke Kahanamoku, who has won Olympic medals for his swimming, becoming the pride of the islands. Rachel and Kenji get married, and, during the reception, the celebrants are separated by a picket fence. Days later, Henry leaves, worried that he has traveled to Kalaupapa for the last time, and hugs his daughter, in spite of the regulations against it.

Kenji and Rachel take over Leilani’s house, and, after settling into a domestic routine, Kenji finds work as a bookkeeper for the Kalaupapa Store, while Rachel becomes a cleaner at Bishop Home. Catherine and Rachel grow close, eating lunch together, and Catherine asks Rachel to describe marriage.

Francine accidentally steps on a nail, and, because her foot no longer has feeling, she doesn’t realize it. The doctor amputates her foot, as it becomes gangrenous, and she dies soon after becoming comatose. Rachel discovers she’s pregnant, and, because she has leprosy, must give the child up for adoption. She struggles whether to keep her child and gives birth clandestinely in order to spend the night with her daughter, Ruth, named for Sister Catherine. In the almost year that Ruth remains at Kalaupapa being cared for by nurses, Kenji and Rachel visit twice a week, which is all they are permitted to do. Catherine takes Ruth to Honolulu so she might be adopted.