Fortunes Summary and Analysis

Susan marvels at Laroche's ability to wholly abandon something with which he had been previously obsessed. After the disaster with the Seminoles and his judgment in court, Laroche renounces the plant world entirely. He shuts down any possibility of returning to that world again. Laroche moves on to work with computers; he starts a company called NetRunner and says he'll make a fortune.

Susan attends the South Florida Orchid Society Show and sees nearly every other orchid grower she had met in Florida, including Martin Motes, Tom Fennell, Bob Fuchs, Frank Smith and all of the American Orchid Society people she had seen at the gala. She still holds out the hope that she might see a ghost orchid in bloom and therefore does not want to miss the show for anything.

She visits Motes' house again and sees many of...