Seven years have passed since Alex's mother's death and the Haley family has moved to Elizabeth City, North Carolina where Simon is teaching agriculture at the local state teacher's college after remarrying. Alex has decided to drop out of college and return home, immediately finding a job with the WPA for $1 a day. Simon, realizing that Alex was apparently too young when he was sent off to college, recommends that Alex enlist in the military. Alex decides to join the Coast Guard in Norfolk, Virginia, but sadly discovers that his only opportunity there is working in the ship's galley. Alex eventually meets a young lady at a weekly church social and after war is declared, marries her before he is sent off to the south pacific. While at sea, he learns that he is the father of a baby girl and otherwise finds popularity and solace when writing. When the war is over, he returns home and re-enlists despite his father's disapproval, taking an assignment at a Coast Guard station in New York City. However he finds that racism is alive and well in his day to day life and his struggle to become a professional writer eventually alienates his wife.