Summary: A Wrinkle in Time

The sto­ry cen­ters on Meg Mur­ry, an ungain­ly high school girl who sets off on a cos­mic voy­age with her younger sib­ling, Charles Wal­lace, and Calvin O’Keefe, a com­pan­ion, to res­cue her mys­te­ri­ous­ly dis­ap­peared father, a bril­liant sci­en­tist, from the mali­cious influ­ences of an extrater­res­tri­al plan­et. Their expe­di­tion com­mences after encoun­ter­ing Mrs. What­sit, a seem­ing­ly eccen­tric wan­der­er who, in real­i­ty, is a celes­tial being capa­ble of delv­ing into Meg’s thoughts. Mrs. What­sit intro­duces them to a tesser­act, a type of spa­tial-tem­po­ral anom­aly, which becomes their por­tal to tra­verse the fifth dimen­sion in their search for Mr. Murry.

The trio, accom­pa­nied by Calvin O’Keefe, a pop­u­lar school­mate, is enlight­ened by Mrs. What­sit and her com­rades, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which, about a dark cos­mic enti­ty named the Dark Thing, that has devoured numer­ous plan­ets includ­ing Cama­zotz, where Mr. Mur­ry is impris­oned. Upon reach­ing Cama­zotz, they encounter a world where every­thing is eeri­ly iden­ti­cal, under the sway of the hyp­not­ic throbs of IT, a colos­sal brain devoid of a phys­i­cal form. Charles endeav­ors to com­bat IT using his intel­lect but suc­cumbs to IT’s influ­ence, turn­ing into a pup­pet echo­ing IT’s words. Despite fac­ing IT, the group bare­ly man­ages to flee, tesser­ing to Ixchel, a plan­et shroud­ed in grey, while leav­ing behind Charles, still under IT’s control.

On Ixchel, they cross paths again with the three Mrs. W’s, and Meg com­pre­hends that she must return alone to Cama­zotz to save Charles. She learns that she pos­sess­es some­thing lack­ing in IT, which will act as her weapon against malev­o­lence, but she must uncov­er it on her own. When con­front­ed by IT, Meg rec­og­nizes that her weapon is her capa­bil­i­ty to love. Focus­ing on her love for Charles, she suc­cess­ful­ly breaks IT’s grip on him and tes­sel­lates back to Earth, where they joy­ous­ly reunite with their father and Calvin. The tale draws to a close with Mrs. W’s bid­ding them farewell as they set out on anoth­er expedition.

Chapter 1

On a stormy night, Meg Mur­ry wres­tles with sleep, trou­bled by her predica­ments. Strug­gling aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly, fac­ing poten­tial grade demo­tion from her teach­ers, and endur­ing her father’s pro­longed absence, Meg’s anx­i­eties are height­ened by the loud bark­ing of their dog, Fort­in­bras, arous­ing fears of a recent bed-sheet thief rumored to be lurk­ing in the vicin­i­ty. Seek­ing solace, Meg heads to the kitchen for cocoa, only to find her younger broth­er, Charles Wal­lace, already present, seem­ing­ly attuned to her thoughts. Joined by their moth­er, Meg con­fides her dilem­mas about feel­ing out of place at school, and yearn­ing to con­form like her aver­age twin broth­ers. Her moth­er imparts wis­dom on find­ing equi­lib­ri­um — a “hap­py medi­um.” Charles hints at a con­fi­dante, Mrs. What­sit, whom he con­sult­ed about Meg, but divulges lit­tle about her. Amidst Fort­in­bras’ per­sis­tent bark­ing and their moth­er’s brief absence, Meg wit­ness­es the unan­tic­i­pat­ed arrival of Mrs. What­sit, an eccen­tri­cal­ly attired, drenched vis­i­tor. Pas­sion­ate about tumul­tuous weath­er, Mrs. What­sit had lost her way amidst the stormy night. Charles con­fronts Mrs. What­sit about the stolen sheets, affirm­ing Meg’s sus­pi­cions of her being the alleged thief. Fol­low­ing her brief respite, Mrs. What­sit cryp­ti­cal­ly alludes to a “tesser­act” before hasti­ly depart­ing, leav­ing Mrs. Mur­ry star­tled at the doorway.

Chapter 2

Awak­en­ing uncer­tain of the verac­i­ty of the pri­or night’s pecu­liar events, Meg finds reas­sur­ance from her moth­er, who implies that under­stand­ing is not a pre­req­ui­site for accep­tance. Sub­se­quent­ly rep­ri­mand­ed by the prin­ci­pal, Mr. Jenk­ins, for her per­ceived dis­cour­tesy, Meg is urged to apply her­self more dili­gent­ly aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly. Mr. Jenk­ins probes into Meg’s fam­i­ly dynam­ics, par­tic­u­lar­ly ques­tion­ing her absent father, Mr. Mur­ry, trig­ger­ing defen­sive respons­es from Meg against the impli­ca­tions of her father’s aban­don­ment. Post-school, Meg, accom­pa­nied by Charles Wal­lace and their loy­al Fort­in­bras, ven­tures to the local­i­ty where Mrs. What­sit and her fel­low com­pan­ions are rumored to dwell in a haunt­ed house. En route, Fort­in­bras’ per­sis­tent bark­ing reveals the pres­ence of Calvin O’Keefe, a pop­u­lar ath­let­ic peer. Calvin dis­clos­es his desire to evade his siz­able fam­i­ly by seek­ing refuge at the house. Engaged by Charles Wal­lace, Calvin admits to an inex­plic­a­ble allure towards the abode, sub­se­quent­ly accept­ing an invi­ta­tion to the Mur­ry house­hold for sup­per. Before depar­ture, Charles Wal­lace leads Meg and Calvin into the enig­mat­ic res­i­dence. Inside, a bespec­ta­cled, plump woman is engrossed in sewing with Mrs. Bun­combe’s miss­ing sheets adja­cent to a sim­mer­ing caul­dron. Addressed as Mrs. Who by Charles, the woman cryp­ti­cal­ly alludes to Calvin being a “good choice”. She cryp­ti­cal­ly hints at an impend­ing “time,” prompt­ing their return home for sus­te­nance and respite. Devoid of clar­i­fi­ca­tions, Meg, Charles, and Calvin make their way back for din­ner at the Murry’s.

Chapter 3

Return­ing to the com­fort­ing con­fines of the Mur­ry res­i­dence, Meg, Charles Wal­lace, and Calvin reunite with Mrs. Mur­ry prepar­ing a hearty stew for their sup­per. Calvin, inform­ing his moth­er of his absence from din­ner, con­fides in Meg about his pos­si­ble unno­ticed depar­ture from home. The nur­tur­ing ambiance of the Mur­ry abode pro­found­ly impacts Calvin, mar­veling at the famil­ial har­mo­ny. Shar­ing a snap­shot of her father with sci­en­tists at Cape Canaver­al with Calvin, Meg also aids him in aca­d­e­m­ic pur­suits. Calvin express­es increduli­ty at Meg’s apti­tude in assist­ing him with math and physics, a skill attrib­uted by Mrs. Mur­ry to her father’s child­hood numer­i­cal games. Post-meal, while Calvin reads to Charles Wal­lace in bed, Meg engages her moth­er in con­ver­sa­tion. Address­ing her melan­choly over her hus­band’s absence, Mrs. Mur­ry imparts wis­dom on the exis­tence of expla­na­tions for all occur­rences, even if not ful­ly com­pre­hend­ed — a notion that dis­qui­ets Meg’s quest for com­plete under­stand­ing. Reflect­ing on Charles Wal­lace’s excep­tion­al com­pre­hen­sion, Mrs. Mur­ry alludes to his unique­ness. Lat­er, dur­ing a noc­tur­nal stroll in the back­yard, Calvin inquires about Meg’s father, a physi­cist with gov­ern­ment affil­i­a­tions in New Mex­i­co and Cape Canaver­al. Meg divulges her father’s year-long silence, refut­ing the town’s gos­sip about him, a sen­ti­ment affirmed by Calv­in’s skep­ti­cism towards such rumors. Com­pli­ment­ing Meg on her eyes, Calvin unex­pect­ed­ly gar­ners a blush from her. The abrupt appear­ance of Charles Wal­lace her­alds the com­mence­ment of their quest to locate Mr. Mur­ry, as Mrs. Who emerges under the moon­light while Mrs. What­sit scales a fence clad in Mrs. Bun­combe’s sheets. Mrs. Which, in a gen­tle zephyr, asserts her pres­ence, opt­ing for invis­i­bil­i­ty to con­serve ener­gy for forth­com­ing tasks.

Chapter 4

Sud­den­ly, Meg gets drawn away from Charles and Calvin into a qui­et empti­ness. She is unable to shout out to them as she lacks a phys­i­cal form or voice. Sud­den­ly, she sens­es her heart begin­ning to beat and wit­ness­es Charles and Calvin reap­pear. They are informed by Mrs. What­sit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which that they are on the plan­et Uriel. Mrs. What­sit describes their mode of trans­porta­tion as “tesser­ing” or “wrin­kling” through space, a con­cept Meg links to the pre­vi­ous­ly men­tioned “tesser­act”. Mrs. What­sit reveals that their father’s life is at risk and they are on their way to res­cue him, but first, they must com­pre­hend their foe. She trans­forms into a mag­nif­i­cent being, part human and part horse, scold­ing a rev­er­ent Calvin. The chil­dren ride on the back of Mrs. What­sit across beau­ti­ful land­scapes. Below them, crea­tures engage in a musi­cal dance that con­veys Bib­li­cal vers­es from Isa­iah 42:10–12. Over­whelmed with hap­pi­ness, Meg reach­es for Calv­in’s hand. They con­tin­ue their upward jour­ney, uti­liz­ing clus­ters of flow­ers to breathe as the air thins. While roam­ing the sky of Uriel, Mrs. What­sit presents them with a cos­mic panora­ma unat­tain­able from Earth. They observe Uriel’s moon, a sun­set and moon­set, and a men­ac­ing dark­ness that engulfs the sur­round­ing stars. Meg real­izes that this dark shad­ow, a Thing itself, embod­ies the most pro­found form of malev­o­lence. Return­ing to the ground, Meg ques­tions Mrs. Which, inquir­ing if the Dark Thing they wit­nessed is what her father is combating.

Chapter 5

Mrs. Which dis­clos­es to Meg that her father is impris­oned by the dark­ness, but they are embark­ing on a mis­sion to set him free. They will be using a method of trav­el known as tesser­ing, which serves as a short­cut through time and space. Charles Wal­lace sim­pli­fies it for Meg, elu­ci­dat­ing that tesser­ing involves voy­ag­ing in the fifth dimen­sion, which, in con­junc­tion with the four oth­er rec­og­nized dimen­sions, enables them to tra­verse dis­tances in a non­lin­ear man­ner. A pow­er­ful gust of wind lifts them and they com­mence tesser­ing. How­ev­er, Meg sud­den­ly feels an oppres­sive pres­sure and hears a voice cau­tion­ing them about being trapped in a two-dimen­sion­al world. Mrs. Which admits to an over­sight, as she is unac­cus­tomed to cor­po­re­al think­ing, over­look­ing the fact that humans can­not sur­vive in two dimen­sions. Mrs. What­sit informs them that their des­ti­na­tion is a grey plan­et with­in Ori­on’s belt. Despite Meg’s anx­i­eties about her moth­er, Mrs. What­sit reas­sures her that they have employed a time wrin­kle along­side the space wrin­kle, guar­an­tee­ing their return home five min­utes before they depart. Upon arriv­ing at the grey plan­et, they encounter the Hap­py Medi­um in a cav­ern. The Medi­um is a cheer­ful woman clad in a tur­ban and satin gown, wield­ing a crys­tal ball. With reluc­tance, the Medi­um grants the chil­dren a glimpse of their home plan­et, unveil­ing its encir­clement by the Dark Thing observed ini­tial­ly by Uriel. The Dark Thing, clar­i­fied by Mrs. Which, epit­o­mizes pure Malev­o­lence and is their adver­sary. They are not soli­tary in their bat­tle, align­ing with a dis­tin­guished lin­eage of Earth­’s most emi­nent fight­ers against the Dark Thing, such as Jesus, da Vin­ci, Shake­speare, Ein­stein, Bach, and Gand­hi. When Meg demands infor­ma­tion about her father, Mrs. Which reveals that he is detained on a plan­et sur­ren­dered to the Dark Thing.

Chapter 6

The Hap­py Medi­um exhibits to the young­sters a cos­mic con­flict between stars and the Dark Thing through her crys­tal ball. Mrs. What­sit dis­clos­es that she once exist­ed as a star who sac­ri­ficed her being to com­bat the Dark Thing. This dis­clo­sure deeply moves the chil­dren, par­tic­u­lar­ly Charles Wal­lace, who con­veys their grat­i­tude with a kiss. To light­en the atmos­phere before their depar­ture, the Hap­py Medi­um offers them a glimpse of their moth­ers. Calv­in’s moth­er is depict­ed dis­ci­plin­ing a child, and Meg’s moth­er is shown pen­ning her dai­ly cor­re­spon­dence to her hus­band. This sight brings tears to Meg’s eyes. They bid farewell to the Hap­py Medi­um and tess­er to Cama­zotz, where their father is con­fined. Sur­vey­ing the town from a hill, the chil­dren are informed by Mrs. Ws that they will not be accom­pa­ny­ing them fur­ther. As a part­ing ges­ture, each child is bestowed some­thing to assist them. Mrs. What­sit ampli­fies the chil­dren’s exist­ing attrib­ut­es, Mrs. Who bestows Meg with her spec­ta­cles, a Shake­speare excerpt to Calvin, and a Goethe quo­ta­tion to Charles. Mrs. Which advis­es them to stand unit­ed and Mrs. What­sit impels Calvin to safe­guard Meg. She also cau­tions Charles about the immi­nent per­il he might encounter in Cama­zotz. With this, the three chil­dren bid adieu to their oth­er­world­ly guides and ven­ture into the town. All res­i­dences in Cama­zotz are indis­tin­guish­able, with the chil­dren observ­ing syn­chro­nized activ­i­ties in front of each house. One boy fum­bles his ball, result­ing in an ‘Aber­ra­tion,’ leav­ing his moth­er aghast. A paper­boy ques­tions their out­door pres­ence and briefs them on the reign­ing enti­ty, IT in the CENTRAL Cen­tral Intel­li­gence. The chil­dren dis­cern an eerie uni­for­mi­ty in the demeanor of the town’s denizens as though every­one is under some form of influ­ence. Deter­mined to con­front the tri­als of Cama­zotz, the chil­dren resolve to infil­trate the CENTRAL Cen­tral Intel­li­gence edi­fice. Despite some appre­hen­sions about rec­og­niz­ing their long-lost father and the loom­ing dan­gers, they push for­ward, cog­nizant that they have no alternative.

Chapter 7

Calvin sug­gests explor­ing the CENTRAL Cen­tral Intel­li­gence Build­ing alone, pledg­ing to return and brief Meg and Charles Wal­lace. Nonethe­less, the Mur­ry sib­lings insist on remain­ing togeth­er, as direct­ed by Mrs. Which. Con­tem­plat­ing how to gain entry into the build­ing, a door opens, reveal­ing a spa­cious foy­er with drab, green mar­ble and icy walls teem­ing with iden­ti­cal men in for­mal attire. Their inquis­i­tive­ness dri­ves them to inter­ro­gate one of the uni­form­ly dressed men about the oper­a­tions in CENTRAL. To their befud­dle­ment, the man instructs them to sub­mit doc­u­ments to var­i­ous slot machines, igno­rant of their unfa­mil­iar­i­ty with the plan­et’s intri­cate mechan­i­cal frame­work that gov­erns all affairs. He ref­er­ences oper­at­ing a “num­ber-one spelling machine” at the “sec­ond-grade lev­el,” cau­tion­ing them about poten­tial “repro­cess­ing” if he fails to report their pres­ence. Sud­den­ly, the mar­ble wall dis­in­te­grates, ush­er­ing the chil­dren into a vast cham­ber filled with machin­ery and android-like atten­dants. At the room’s far end, they approach a man with crim­son eyes, seat­ed on a plat­form. A lumi­nous glow above his head puls­es syn­chro­nous­ly with his eyes. The chil­dren swift­ly deduce that the man is linked to the Dark Thing, prompt­ing Charles to cau­tion Meg and Calvin to shut their eyes to avert hyp­no­sis. Despite the man’s endeav­or to hyp­no­tize them by rhyth­mi­cal­ly recit­ing mul­ti­pli­ca­tion tables, Charles and Calvin resist by recit­ing nurs­ery rhymes and the Get­tys­burg Address. The man com­mu­ni­cates tele­path­i­cal­ly, ques­tion­ing their ratio­nale for seek­ing their father, inca­pable of com­pre­hend­ing that pater­nal love itself suf­fices as a motive. Unex­pect­ed­ly, Charles impul­sive­ly lunges for­ward, kick­ing the man, sur­mis­ing that the man’s con­trol over him­self is com­pro­mised. Charles is tasked with gaz­ing into the man’s eyes to unveil his iden­ti­ty, being the sole child with a sophis­ti­cat­ed neu­ropsy­cho­log­i­cal sys­tem to com­pre­hend the man. The Man with the Red Eyes presents an extrav­a­gant turkey feast, which tastes like sand to Charles. He expounds that the sus­te­nance is arti­fi­cial and Charles would rel­ish it if he embraced IT. Despite Meg’s protests, Charles con­sents to ascer­tain the man’s true nature. After a mes­mer­iz­ing gaze from the man, Charles’s­The boy’s con­duct alters dra­mat­i­cal­ly. He charges Meg with being “aggres­sive and unco­op­er­a­tive” while assert­ing the food is deli­cious. Dis­tressed, Meg reach­es out to Calvin, stat­ing that the boy is no longer their Charles.

Chapter 8

Under IT’s influ­ence, Charles Wal­lace indulges in his meal, claim­ing the Man with the Red Eyes as a com­pan­ion and view­ing the Mrs. W’s as adver­saries. Meg and Calvin per­ceive the shift in him, striv­ing to estab­lish a con­nec­tion with the authen­tic Charles trapped inside. They con­front the Man with the Red Eyes, who presents him­self as the Prime Coor­di­na­tor, ensur­ing them that Charles will lead them to Mr. Mur­ry. Descend­ing a stark white cor­ri­dor fol­low­ing Charles, Meg rec­ol­lects Mrs. What­sit’s gift to Calvin — com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Encour­ag­ing him to inter­act with Charles, Calvin briefly estab­lish­es a friend­ly bond with Charles, only for him to drift away again, endors­ing IT as the “Leader” and “Hap­pi­est Sadist.” Charles extols IT’s virtues, stress­ing that on Cama­zotz, com­plete uni­for­mi­ty erad­i­cates con­flict and sor­row. Meg, how­ev­er, believes that a degree of melan­choly is cru­cial for gen­uine joy. Charles ges­tures, caus­ing the cor­ri­dor wall to become trans­par­ent, reveal­ing a room bathed in a faint, sul­furous light. Inquir­ing, Charles dis­clos­es that he mod­i­fied the wal­l’s atoms to unveil it. They wit­ness a boy they had pre­vi­ous­ly observed bounc­ing a ball rhyth­mi­cal­ly, winc­ing in agony with each bounce. Charles explains this as pun­ish­ment for the boy’s pri­or defi­ance. Sub­se­quent­ly, Charles unveils anoth­er cham­ber, con­tain­ing a translu­cent col­umn impris­on­ing Mr. Murry.

Chapter 9

Meg makes a des­per­ate attempt to reach her father in the col­umn but fails since her father does not per­ceive her. Irri­tat­ed, she lash­es out at Charles, who retal­i­ates by strik­ing her. Almost free­ing the authen­tic Charles with a recita­tion from Shake­speare’s The Tem­pest, gift­ed by Mrs. Who, Calvin is unsuc­cess­ful as Charles remains under the influ­ence. Over­whelmed, Meg recalls Mrs. Who’s glass­es, don­ning them and final­ly suc­ceed­ing in reach­ing her father. Elat­ed by Meg’s pres­ence, Mr. Mur­ry only sees her after uti­liz­ing Mrs. Who’s glass­es. With Meg by his side, he employs the glass­es to escape the col­umn. Once out­side, Charles Wal­lace behaves impo­lite­ly towards Mr. Mur­ry, prompt­ing Meg to reas­sure her father that this is not the real Charles. Charles then insists on lead­ing them to IT, a prospect that alarms Mr. Mur­ry, fear­ing for Meg’s well-being. They are left with no option but to fol­low Charles. Exit­ing the CENTRAL Cen­tral Intel­li­gence Build­ing, they enter an unusu­al, dome-shaped edi­fice radi­at­ing a vio­let glow. Sens­ing a con­sis­tent pul­sat­ing rhythm affect­ing her heart rate, Meg is over­whelmed. The struc­ture encas­es noth­ing but a colos­sal brain on an ele­vat­ed cir­cu­lar plat­form. Mr. Mur­ry cau­tions Meg and Calvin against suc­cumb­ing to IT’s rhyth­mic influ­ence. Despite Meg’s efforts to resist IT’s con­trol by recit­ing the Dec­la­ra­tion of Inde­pen­dence, the peri­od­ic table, and irra­tional square roots, she begins to suc­cumb to IT’s sway. Rec­og­niz­ing Meg’s immi­nent sub­mis­sion to IT, Calvin urges every­one to try. Seiz­ing Meg’s hand, Mr. Mur­ry ini­ti­ates the chaot­ic sen­sa­tion of tessering.

Chapter 10

Upon regain­ing con­scious­ness, Meg per­ceives a chill­ing paral­y­sis, over­hear­ing Calvin and her father, Mr. Mur­ry, con­vers­ing about her con­di­tion. Their dia­logue unveils Mr. Mur­ry’s unfore­seen voy­age to Cama­zotz while attempt­ing to tess­er to Mars, con­fronting the plan­et’s dis­tinct time flow. He was on the verge of yield­ing to IT before the chil­dren inter­vened to res­cue him. Strug­gling to make a sound, Meg even­tu­al­ly man­ages to utter words. Enraged upon dis­cov­er­ing that Charles Wal­lace was left behind, she reproach­es her father for fail­ing to save them all. Mr. Mur­ry coun­ters, acknowl­edg­ing his human­i­ty and dis­pelling her belief in mir­a­cles, entrust­ing that “all things work togeth­er for good for them that love God.” As he rubs Meg’s fin­gers, caus­ing her dis­com­fort, he inter­prets it as an encour­ag­ing sign of a return­ing sen­sa­tion. Abrupt­ly, Calvin alerts them to three pecu­liar beings with four arms, ten­ta­cle-like hair, and face­less vis­ages approach­ing. Polite intro­duc­tions and expla­na­tions of Meg’s con­di­tion ensue, ini­tial­ly instill­ing fear in Meg until the com­fort­ing touch of one being radi­ates warmth, decid­ing to accom­pa­ny her.

Chapter 11

Calvin reveals to the extrater­res­tri­al crea­tures his ori­gin from a world com­bat­ing the Dark Thing. Star­tled by the encounter, as they have nev­er engaged with out­siders like Calvin and the Mur­rys before, the crea­tures insist on over­see­ing Meg, per­ceiv­ing her fragili­ty and vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty. Find­ing solace lean­ing against one of the crea­tures, Meg expe­ri­ences warmth and pro­tec­tion. They envel­op her in a com­fort­ing sub­stance, attire her in a fur cloak, and present her with an ”inde­scrib­ably deli­cious” meal. Engag­ing in dia­logue with one of the crea­tures, Meg chris­tens it “Aunt Beast” after con­sid­er­ing var­i­ous names. Attempt­ing to con­vey the con­cepts of light and sight to Aunt Beast, who lacks eyes, Meg suc­cumbs to sleep at the crea­ture’s encour­age­ment, awak­en­ing refreshed. Aunt Beast admits to the com­mu­ni­ca­tion chal­lenges in Meg’s lan­guage but per­se­veres, unveil­ing their abode on a plan­et named Ixchel, also bat­tling against the Dark Thing. Singing a mes­mer­iz­ing tune, Aunt Beast soothes Meg, fos­ter­ing her har­mo­ny with the uni­verse. Fol­low­ing anoth­er round of reas­sur­ance and attire adjust­ment by Aunt Beast, Meg is escort­ed to reunite with her father and Calvin, indulging in a fla­vor­ful albeit col­or­less repast. Hasti­ly inquir­ing about any con­tact with the three Mrs. W’s, Meg’s attempt to describe them to Aunt Beast is obstruct­ed by the crea­ture’s lack of sight. Strug­gling to empha­size the dis­tinc­tive­ness of the three women, Meg is star­tled by Mrs. Which’s res­o­nant voice announc­ing their presence.

Chapter 12

Respond­ing to Meg’s call, Mrs. What­sit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which mate­ri­al­ize on Ixchel but dis­close their inabil­i­ty to aid in Charles Wal­lace’s res­cue. Request­ing their assis­tance in tesser­ing to Cama­zotz to save Charles, Mr. Mur­ry’s plea is dis­missed by Mrs. Which as futile. Despite Calv­in’s offer to retrieve Charles being declined as well, amidst the ensu­ing silence, Meg acknowl­edges that the respon­si­bil­i­ty to save her broth­er falls upon her, a daunt­ing real­iza­tion. Ini­tial­ly resis­tant, Meg even­tu­al­ly com­pre­hends that her pro­found bond with Charles places her in the opti­mal posi­tion to res­cue him. Despite the reser­va­tions of her father and Calvin, Mrs. W per­suade them that it is the right choice. Bid­ding farewell to her father, Calvin, and Aunt Beast, Meg apol­o­gizes to her father for her ear­li­er out­bursts. Guid­ed by Mrs. Which through tesser­ing to tra­verse the Black Thing and ensure her secure arrival at Cama­zotz, Meg is gift­ed spe­cif­ic items by each Mrs. W: Mrs. What­sit enhances her innate love, Mrs. Who bestows a pas­sage from the New Tes­ta­ment, and Mrs. Which instills with­in her a qual­i­ty lack­ing in IT, left for Meg to dis­cov­er inde­pen­dent­ly. Tesser­ing along­side Mrs. Which, Meg lands on Cama­zotz and pro­ceeds direct­ly to the domed struc­ture shel­ter­ing IT. Dis­cov­er­ing Charles cow­er­ing behind the dais, his eyes fren­zied and a tic puls­ing to IT’s ghast­ly rhythm, Meg endeav­ors to dis­cern Mrs. Which’s gift as Charles con­tends that she pos­sess­es noth­ing beyond what IT does. Pro­claim­ing Mrs. What­sit’s dis­dain for her, Charles prompts Meg’s real­iza­tion that her secret weapon against IT is love. While she may not har­bor affec­tion for IT, her love for Charles empow­ers her to reach out to him. Respond­ing to her beck­on­ing, Charles rush­es towards her, and they tess­er togeth­er through the dark­ness, reunit­ing with Calvin and Mr. Mur­ry in the twins’ botan­i­cal gar­den on Earth. Fol­low­ing an emo­tion­al reunion, the three Mrs. W’s man­i­fest. Apol­o­giz­ing for their abrupt depar­ture, Mrs. What­sit elu­ci­dates their neces­si­ty else­where. As she com­mences explain­ing their mis­sion, a gust of wind inter­rupts her mid-sen­tence, caus­ing the three ladies to vanish.