Gangs from all over the city, signaled by a Beatles song on the radio, head to the meeting place at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.

As Hinton is more familiar with the neighborhood, having lived there before, he is given the task of leading the gang out of Woodlawn Cemetery, where they have escaped the cops in the chaos.

The gang decides to call Wallie, the youth board worker assigned to their case, to come and drive them home.

Hector meets the leader to parley (negotiate) for safe passage and all goes well until a girl, one of the Blazers' debs (girlfriends), desires one of the Dominators' insignia pins.

The Dominators then encounter an individual and start a fight, the girl cheering them on while they take turns stabbing the man with the stolen blade.

Throughout the novel, the gang plays games of "manhood", either to relieve boredom or to settle disputes: waiting for the train, the Dominators have a contest as to who can urinate the farthest.

Then Hector holds another "manhood" game involving the gang sticking their heads out the train window until it passes into the subway tunnel.

Arriving at the 96th Street and Broadway station, the Dominators encounter a transit cop eyeing them suspiciously.

They encounter a large, heavy-set, alcoholic nurse sitting on a bench; Lunkface takes an interest in her.

When Lunkface, frustrated, hits her to keep her still, the woman retaliates with unexpected strength and starts screaming "Rape!".

The trio, unable to overpower her, flee but are promptly caught by police coming to the woman's aid.

While waiting for the gang he enters a public bathroom (unknown to him) re-purposed as a sort of brothel and is forced into sex with a teenage prostitute, shakes off a homosexual, and a young junkie offering sexual favors for money, travels back and forth on the shuttle to Grand Central and, overcome with an inexplicable hunger, eats incessantly.

After a brief moment of celebration, Hinton, all riled up with anger and the sense of victory, impulsively calls out a rumble against the Lords, the rival gang to the Dominators.

Hinton tends to the baby who was being neglected, then has a futile talk with his junkie older half-brother Alonso about life in general and the future.