Willow's Vietnamese has improved, and she understands the manicurists when they speak to each other at the salon. It is painful for her to hear them talk about their families all day because “they are joined by blood and circumstance and shared experience” (184), which Willow no longer has. Children's Services call Pattie to inform here there will be a home visit in the evening, so Pattie calls Dell for a ride.

Dell reluctantly brings Pattie and Willow to his apartment at the Gardens of Glenwood. It is apparent right away that the Nguyens do not live among Dell's hoarded junk. The enormous challenge of transforming this dirty space into her fake home does not discourage Pattie, and the first step she takes is to buy supplemental furniture. With the furniture in place, Dell heads out with a grocery list while Pattie and Willow tackle the piles of trash.

Dell picks Quang-ha up from school, and on the phone, Pattie instructs her son to pick up some belongings from their home to bring to Dell's. Upon seeing their garage setup, Dell understands why they use his address. By the time they return to Gardens of Glenwood, Quang-ha starts to feel excited by this elaborate plan, because it feels “like some kind of prison break” (200). Mai gets out of her enrichment program after school, and unaware that her mother is at Dell's preparing for the home visit, she heads to the salon. While she waits for the bus, she thinks about the life cycle of a rose and the lessons about life and death it teaches. 

Willow helps Quang-ha remove a tarp covering Dell's skylight. They smash a bag full of empty wine bottles they were going to throw in the trash and place the colorful shards on top of the window for a stained-glass effect. Willow realizes this is the first time she has collaborated with Quang-ha on anything, and is “forced to admit that being in a room with a teenage boy who appreciated the effect of shattered glass slices of color makes [her] feel better about the world” (207). Pattie, who has turned “into some kind of human tornado” while cleaning Dell's apartment (201), lets Quang-ha rearrange the furniture, which makes the room look significantly better. 

Dell leaves the apartment complex just as Lenore Cole shows up for the inspection. He heads to the depressing local bar, where he thinks about Pattie taking such aggressive control of his life. This prompts him to add a “Dictator” label to his system. Mai resents not being privy to the plan earlier because she has to take a second bus across town to get to Dell's. She starts to question if they are genuinely helping Willow by creating this elaborate lie. Frustrated, she tries to stomp down on an acorn, which hurts her foot. She kicks it into the street, and a passing care misses it. She picks it up, deciding it is lucky, and plans to secretly give it to Willow.

Willow's home visit is over quickly, and Lenore assures her that the agency will “find the right place for [her]” (213). Mai arrives, and is excited about her new bunk bed. Willow sincerely thanks Pattie for everything she did today. They have dinner in their “new” kitchen and spend the evening watching TV together. In this new setting, Willow briefly “[forgets] that [she does not] have a mother or a father or a place to call home” (216). She realizes she is sitting on the small acorn that Mai secretly left on the couch, and Mai tells her it might be lucky. Willow agrees, thinking: “It is a seed, after all, and they are by definition the beginning of something” (217).

Dell gets home from the bar late that night, and the Nguyens and Willow are asleep in his home. Early the next morning, Pattie tells him it would be more convenient if everyone stayed with Dell for the week, since Children's Services will be returning. She noticed that a tenant in the building is looking for a roommate and suggests that Dell temporarily move in with him so that everyone has enough space. By the end of the morning, Sadhu Kumar approves Dell to be his new roommate, just down the hall from Dell's actual apartment. Pattie agrees to pay his new rent as long as he keeps paying for the unit the Nguyens and Willow will be staying in.

Willow watches Dell reluctantly move all of his belongings into Sadhu's apartment. She knows how much everyone has sacrificed for her and wants to start contributing to the group somehow. When Mai mentions that Quang-ha once tried to grow an avocado tree from a pit, Willow cannot help but start to think about gardening again. This, for her, is a “slippery slope” because “it's hard to care just a little” (228). 

Over the weekend, Willow observes Quang-ha and Dell watching TV together and sees them bonding over reality shows. When she goes outside for some fresh air, she reflects on the differences between her old life and her new one. She spots a hummingbird, and after mixing up some sugar syrup, she returns to feed it. She decides that the Gardens of Glenwood need “a real garden” (237).

Willow starts to notice the greenery of her new neighborhood for the first time and begins collecting plant clippings for propagation. At the end of a mostly silent counseling session with Dell, where they pretend nothing has changed, Dell asks Willow how he can improve her life. She tells him he could get her some sunflower seeds to plant. Dell gets her two dozen packets of seeds, and she feels overwhelmed by how much he cares for her. That evening Willow, Mai, and Dell open some of the packets to start the germination process.

Mai enjoys her knew life, despite knowing it is temporary because “the weight of the world no longer felt like it rested entirely on her shoulders” (244). Jairo goes to the college bookstore to buy the required reading for a biology course. This new commitment makes him nervous, and he briefly reconsiders his new plans but decides to follow through and buy the books anyway. He ends up being the store's one millionth customer, and he wins $20,000, which is enough to cover the cost of his courses.

As Willow and Dell are repurposing many plastic containers for sunflower planters, they see Sadhu getting rid of three old computers. He lets Willow have them, and she takes them apart with the idea of making one of the laptops functional as a gift for Dell. Later, Dell helps the kids plant their sunflower seeds. Willow notices they are no longer acting “like [she'll] break into a million pieces,” which means she might be “on [her] way back to some kind of new normal” (255).

Everyone is adjusting to their new daily routine. Willow knows she is not missing much at school, which is why she tells Dell she does not plan to return. He announces that he is going to start running, which Quang-ha finds hilarious, but Willow supports him. With Willow's help, Quang-ha has been doing well enough in school that he moves into an advanced English class.

Pattie tries to keep Willow busy at the salon. Because of her obsession with diseases, Willow makes many suggestions to improve the salon's sanitation and health standards. Pattie is pleasantly surprised that this brings in more customers. Dell reflects on the improvements in his life: he is healthier, he has a new laptop, and he has higher standards of living. He realizes he is capable of change, and he labels himself “Mutant” in his system. He believes his mutant “superpower” is taking care of Willow, and “for the first time, in as long as he could remember, Dell belonged to something” (267). 

Everyone is excited by the sunflower seedlings. At dinner, Willow expresses her gratitude for everyone's help, but is met with an awkward silence. Mai and Willow decide they want to start running with Dell. Willow struggles on her first day, nearly passing out, but decides she wants to stick with it because she knows “that vigorous exercise changes brain chemistry,” and presently, “there is nothing more [she] could ask for” (278).