- It's been a long night when this chapter opens. All the people who attended the dinner party in Chapter 1 are still lying on the floor as hostages the next morning. Not the best outcome for a party.
- The authorities outside are demanding that the terrorists surrender, using a bullhorn so people inside the house can hear. They aren't having much luck.
- The accompanist who came with Roxane Coss isn't doing so well. He has trouble standing up and talking, and his lips are bluish. It's not cute.
- Mr. Hosokawa is feeling responsible for the whole thing, since the party was given on his account. Worst birthday ever.
- We discover that the French ambassador and his wife, Simon and Edith Thibault, are head-over-heels in love, and that moving on diplomatic assignment to a country they don't like has rekindled their romance after they've been married 25 years. Yes, more backstory.
- There's a knock on the door.
- The terrorists make the vice president answer (this is the vice presidential mansion, of course).
- A Red Cross negotiator named Joachim Messner is at the front door. The police, the military, and the press are all outside too, but they don't try to come in.
- The terrorists agree to let the Red Cross guy in. Maybe this is progress?
- The Red Cross guy is Swiss. He speaks English, French, German, and Italian well. Inconveniently, he only speaks a little Spanish.
- Why did the Red Cross send someone who speaks basically everything except the language of the country they're in?
- Turns out, Messner was on vacation here when everything went bad last night, so they put him to work. Great vacation.
- Messner wants to work with the translator he's brought along, who's waiting outside. But the terrorists decide to find a translator who's already in the building. Gen (the translator working for Mr. Hosokawa) hesitantly volunteers.
- General Alfredo (one of the terrorist leaders) and Messner open negotiations. The insurrectionists want to exchange all the hostages for the president, but Messner says the country won't give up the president. Messner tells them they won't be able to manage all the hostages, and they should let some of them go.
- The vice president, Ruben Iglesias, feels irrelevant, but he's sort of used to it. Maybe it's a vice president thing.
- But Ruben does advise the terrorists to let some people go to show that they are reasonable and willing to work with the state. He wants to tell them that insurrectionists never get what they are looking for, but he uses self-restraint. Good job, Ruben.
- Alfredo and Messner negotiate medical care for the vice president's face.
- The agreement finally reached is that Messner is allowed to put in some stitches with regular household thread. Um, at least it's sterilized?
- Messner isn't such a great doctor, so the young woman who looks after the vice president's children, Esmeralda, steps in and does it instead. She does a good job.
- One of the insurrectionist leaders tries to get Messner to join the people lying on the floor.
- He politely refuses.
- Surprisingly, this works.
- Messner leaves and says he'll come back in an hour.
- The scene shifts to two Catholic priests in different parts of the vice president's mansion. One is a more senior and famous priest hoping that he will be able to gain political power in the Catholic Church through this event.
- The other is a young and unknown priest who absolutely loves opera, but had never heard it live before tonight. A relative of the vice president's wife who admires his good works managed to get him an invite to the party. It's like getting snuck in to hear Bono at a house party because a friend of a friend has connections. Sounds pretty awesome. Too bad it got interrupted by terrorists.
- After two hours, the terrorists let Messner back in.
- Ruben Iglesias goes to get the translator, and this lets the narrator fill in—you guessed it!—some more backstory. We also find out that the accompanist is still not doing well. He says he has the flu. Let's hope he didn't actually kiss Roxane last night.
- Messner and the Generals negotiate. The Generals say they will free women, workers, priests, and anyone who is sick, and they'll consider freeing a few others.
- They ask for supplies in exchange for freeing these people, and they want a statement of demands read to the press.
- General Alfredo was expecting things to work out better than this. Darn that soap opera.
- Through Gen the translator, the Generals tell the people present to stand up, and insist the women move to the right side of the room and the men to the left.
- It's slow going. Couples embrace each other tightly before moving.
- Roxane Coss is trying to hold up her accompanist, who can't even stand by himself. Mr. Hosokawa comes to support him.
- As everyone leaves, the older priest, Monsignor Rolland, leaves too. But Father Arguedas asks to stay with the prisoners.
- This ticks off Monsignor Rolland. Now Father Arguedas will look like a hero and he will look like a coward—which, even in priest world, isn't so good for ambitions. But it's too late now. At least he can go home and watch soap operas.