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Mumtaz appears, and Lakshmi announces her plans to return home. Mumtaz reminds her that she doesn’t know where she is, cannot speak the language, and has no knowledge or money to return home. Mumtaz says that she paid 10,000 rupees for Lakshmi and owns her until she can pay off her debt. She explains that Auntie Bimla works for Mumtaz and is not coming to rescue Lakshmi. Mumtaz makes Shahanna shave Lakshmi’s head, telling the same story as Uncle Husband: If she tries to escape now, others will know not to help her.

Lakshmi stays locked in the room for several days with no food, and Mumtaz comes to whip her often. Mumtaz plans to starve Lakshmi until she agrees to have sex with men, but Lakshmi still refuses. After five days, Shahanna secretly brings Lakshmi some tea, which she gratefully drinks while gazing out the window at some girls in school uniforms. Shahanna says that being out on the streets is awful, because many people have no food or shelter, both of which the girls have here. Out of fear that Mumtaz might kill Lakshmi or send her to a different brothel, Shahanna tries to convince Lakshmi to cooperate, but she still refuses to have sex with men. Although Shahanna is kind, Lakshmi still hesitates to believe her because so far, it has been her experience that most “city people” lie.

Lakshmi loses track of how long she stays locked in the room. Shilpa brings Lakshmi some mango lassi, which she drinks. Shortly afterwards, as Lakshmi loses control of her body, voice, and thoughts, she realizes that she has been drugged, and a man named Habib comes and rapes her. While she is in this drugged state, she can barely perceive what is happening to her, let alone try to escape. Mumtaz force-feeds the drug-laced lassi to Lakshmi each night, and Shahanna nurses her each morning. Throughout this ordeal, one of Lakshmi’s only comforts is taking out her old clothes to breathe in the scent of her home. Shahanna gives Lakshmi a condom and explains that it will protect her from disease. She says that most men will refuse to wear it and warns Lakshmi not to let Mumtaz know about it. Lakshmi also washes herself often. The longer she is away from home, the harder it is to remember specific things like the scent of the flowers or the sound of Ama’s earrings.

After a while, Mumtaz says that because Lakshmi is no longer a “virgin” and cannot fetch as high a price, she needs to move out of the locked room and into a different bedroom that she will share with other girls. Lakshmi is glad about this change, because she can now have the run of the building, watch TV during her free time, and talk with the other girls. However, Mumtaz also now claims that she paid 20,000 rupees for Lakshmi, not 10,000, and Lakshmi is devastated to realize that with Mumtaz so willing to lie about the price of her “debt,” she will never be able to work her way free of her captivity at the brothel.

Mumtaz brings in an even younger new girl and locks her in the room that Lakshmi used to occupy. Lakshmi goes to the kitchen to eat lunch with the others; some of them speak her own language, and others speak the new city language. They’re laughing together, and Lakshmi cannot understand how they can laugh under these circumstances. She almost faints, but Shahanna feeds her rice and invites her to watch TV with the others.

Lakshmi shares the new bedroom with Shahanna, Anita, and a woman named Pushpa, who has two children: a toddler named Jeena and an eight-year-old boy named Harish, who almost always wears a David Beckham T-shirt. Shahanna, Anita, and Lakshmi are all girls from Nepal. Pushpa is an older local woman who started working for Mumtaz after her husband died. Now, she is very sick with a coughing disease. Harish does not speak much of Lakshmi’s language, but they attempt to communicate with each other.

Mumtaz explains to Lakshmi that she will no longer be drugged each night, and men will not be brought to her. Instead, in order to pay off her debt and one day regain her freedom, Lakshmi must work like the other girls by mingling downstairs, waiting for men to arrive, and trying to convince them to have sex with her. Shahanna gives Lakshmi a wealth of advice. She warns Lakshmi that if she does not comply with a customer’s desires, they will most likely beat her, do what they want anyway, and then leave without paying. If a customer gives her sweets, she should eat them immediately so that Mumtaz will not find them and eat them, and if Lakshmi receives any tips, she should hide them so that she can buy tea from the Street Boy who comes with a cart each day. People from the government come once a month to distribute condoms, which the girls take but must hide from both Mumtaz and Shilpa, a woman who works at Happiness House willingly and spies on the girls and women who are being sexually exploited. Shahanna also tells Lakshmi that shy men are more likely to give tips, and old men more likely to give sweets. Lakshmi must tell all customers that she is 12, otherwise Mumtaz will beat her. Mumtaz will also sometimes force the girls to have sex with men for free. Lastly, Shahanna warns her not to go with any Americans who try to trick her into running away, because they will only parade her through the streets naked as a shame walk, then bring her right back to the brothel. As Lakshmi hears this grim advice, she knows that the new girl in the locked room has already died by suicide.

Many of the women working at Happiness House have children, whom they dote on by purchasing school clothes, shoes, and other luxuries, which pushes them deeper into debt with Happiness House. The ones without children treat the children like nieces or nephews. Shahanna shares that most of the girls actually want children, because then at least they would have some family with them. However, having children also traps them more intensely in their situation, for Mumtaz uses the safety of the women’s children as leverage to force their obedience. (For example, Monica has a child back at home, which Mumtaz uses as leverage to keep her from escaping.) Additionally, the young babies and toddlers are habitually drugged so that they will sleep quietly underneath the beds while their mothers engage in sex work at night. The older kids, like Harish, play on the roof until the men leave, then wake up exhausted to start school the next day.

Lakshmi discovers that the base price customers pay to be with her is thirty rupees, the same amount she paid to buy Ama a Coca-Cola at Bajai Sita’s store. She sets about calculating how much debt she has left. Based on how she learned to do math at village school, she should have about 200 nights left if she has six customers each night. However, Shahanna teaches her about “city subtraction,” which involves paying Mumtaz back for rent, electricity, food, and the birth control shots that they are forced to take once a month, and she realizes it will take much longer to work her way free. Lakshmi begins studying the tactics of a girl named Monica, who always gets the most customers despite not being the prettiest. Supposedly, in one month she will have paid off her debt and will be allowed to leave.

Lakshmi begins to resent Harish for being allowed to attend school, roam around freely outside, and have a normal life, seemingly just because he is a boy instead of a girl. Because he is allowed to leave the building, the other girls give Harish coins so that he can fetch them magazines, snacks, and other small luxuries from nearby shops. At night, customers also send Harish on errands to buy cigarettes or alcohol, but they don’t pay him like the girls do. Lakshmi notices that Harish keeps his money in a box with his other belongings, including a storybook, which Lakshmi takes out and looks at whenever he’s gone, even though she is unable to read it.

Anita’s face looks like she is always frowning, but when Lakshmi asks Shahanna about it, she learns that Anita’s face was permanently damaged when she was beaten by a metal pipe after a failed escape attempt; now she is unable to smile. One day, Harish catches Lakshmi looking at his book and silently offers to share it with her, but she is ashamed and runs off. Another day, a police officer comes, and Mumtaz pays him with a wad of bills; Shahanna explains that Mumtaz pays this officer weekly so that he will prevent the other officers from shutting down her illegal business.