A chance encounter with Aksinya on the river rekindles long-forgotten feelings in Grigory. After a visit home, Melekhov prepares to return to his unit, where he is to assume command of a division. In Tatarskoye, the villagers commit a massacre of captured communist Cossacks. In May, the rebel troops begin to retreat along the entire coast. The population of the steppe farmsteads rushes to the left bank of the Don.