An unidentified narrator says that a young man named Jasper Jones has come to his window. The narrator has no idea why, but guesses that Jasper is desperate and in trouble. The narrator says that he lives in a small “sleepout” with only one window. Because it’s summer, and very hot, the narrator reads at night. Tonight, Jasper Jones knocks at the narrator’s window, frightening him.
Jasper Jones calls to the narrator, whom he addresses as Charlie to come out. Charlie does so, thinking that this is the first time he’s ever snuck out of his home. He’s also excited that Jasper Jones needs his help. As he squeezes through his window, he feels like a foal being born.
Jasper and Charlie walk through the moonlight, away from Charlie’s house. Charlie thinks that his mother is asleep, and he studies Jasper. Jasper is a year older than Charlie, but he’s much stronger and bigger. He wears no shoes, and looks like an “island castaway.” Before Jasper and Charlie have gone far, Charlie runs to the back steps of his house to fetch his sandals. As he puts them on, he senses that he’s somehow proving himself weak and effeminate.
After Charlie puts on his sandals, he and Jasper head out of the small town where Charlie lives: Corrigan, Australia. Jasper offers Charlie a cigarette. Because Charlie has never smoked before, he puffs his cheeks and sighs, as if to say that he’s smoked too much already. Jasper shrugs and lights a cigarette for himself.
Charlie's father asks him what he was doing last night. Charlie explains that he was up late reading Pudd’nhead Wilson. His father muses that it’s been years since he read that. He also tells Charlie that Jeffrey has been waiting for Charlie to wake up. Charlie remembers that today is the day of the “Test”—an important trial run for professional cricketers—featuring Jeffrey’s favourite cricket player. Jeffrey is probably listening to the match via radio right now. Charlie finds cricket dull, but he gets up to leave the house and find Jeffrey, quickly drinking all the coffee his mother gave him.
A week after Laura’s death, Jasper Jone's returns to Charlie’s window. It is a week, Charlie notes, that feels as long as his entire life. In the remainder of the week leading up to Jasper’s return, little happens. Jeffrey doesn’t make the Country Week cricket team, which surprises no one, Charlie's mother is irritable, his father is calm, and Charlie himself finishes Pudd’nhead Wilson and moves on to Innocents Abroad. The search party continues, with no success, and various men from the town are drafted to fight in Vietnam.
The night that Jasper returns to Charlie’s window, there is a town meeting at the Miners’ Hall. The town chaplain and a few town council members take questions from the townspeople. For the most part, they say that they have no information or evidence about Laura’s whereabouts. The most likely possibility, they suggest, is that Laura hitchhiked out of town.
In the vestibule of the Miners’ Hall, Charlie notices Jeffrey with his parents. Charlie greets Jeffrey, and they agree that the police know nothing. In the middle of their conversation, there is a cry. Mrs Lu has poured hot water into her teacup from an urn left for the townspeople to drink from. A woman named Sue Findley sees her doing so, and angrily slaps the teacup from her hand, throwing scalding water onto Mrs. Lu’s skin. Sue then yells profanities at Mrs. Lu, who is completely quiet and still. As she’s about to grab Mrs. Lu’s hair, some townspeople lead Sue away, leaving Jeffrey to lead his mother out of the building. He waves goodbye to Charlie, so casually that Charlie doesn’t know how to respond. After Jeffrey and his mother leave, Charlie’s parents talk to each other without mentioning what just happened to Mrs. Lu.