Part 4, Chapters 20-24 Summary

Tereza walks home from shopping with Karenin and finds a crow that is being pelted with rocks by a couple of little kids. The crow is buried in the ground. Tereza saves the crow and brings it home and into the bathroom. She makes a bed for it. Metaphorically, Tereza feels like the crow; weak and alone. She thinks about the past events with the engineer and realizes that she cannot cheat like Tomas. She fears losing him. Tereza stays with the crow, until it is dead. After some time, Tereza begins to yearn for the engineer. She doesn't want an illicit affair, but she is aroused by the idea of her naked body next to someone other than Tomas.

In the first few weeks after her affair, she is scared the engineer will come in. When he fails...