In which Jurgis returns to Chicago in the chill of early fall, securing grimy work tunnelling beneath the city streets for a railway freight-subway, yet finds himself swiftly plunged into crippling injury and destitution. Forced into the bitter cold and the merciless streets without shelter or support, he confronts the harsh realities of a world made cruel by machinery, vice, and the ruthless struggles of those who must beg or endure to survive.