Summary

Grusha continues her travels, and the singer informs the audience that she travels for seven days across the glacier, looking forward to find her brother Lavrenti’s house on the other side. Arkadi describes her high hopes for her brother’s farm, and her reception into his family; yet, when she arrives, her high hopes quickly dissipate as the social responsibility of taking in his sister and her mysterious child disturbs Lavrenti. His worries lay mostly with how his wife, Aniko, will take the news; Grusha uses a combination of truth and lies, claiming the child is hers, and that she got married on the other side of the mountain, and her husband is away, fighting in the war. She claims to have come to wait of his return. Grusha is so tired and malnourished the Lavrenti decides to...