Hope again turns sour for the Joads as they are forced to leave behind the government camp due to a lack of supplies and the inability to find much work. As they are pulled off to the side of the road to repair the truck they happen across a man who tells them of employment they can find picking fruit on a farm. They decide this sounds like a good job so they agree and go to the farm. Unfortunately when they get there they find out that they will only be paid five cents for every box of peaches that they fill. With the whole family working their hardest all day long they are only able to scrape together a dollar between all of them to feed them for the night, and even with that money they are all still hungry.
Hungry and depressed, Tom decides to go exploring and find the cause of a riot the Joads witnessed upon arrival at the fruit farm earlier on that day. He sneaks around and happens to stumble upon Jim Casy who is working for the farm by organizing workers. Jim informs him that the reason for the riot is because wages per box for peach picking was split in half to two and a half cents per box instead of five. The people revolted and new workers were brought in in an effort to stop the revolt. Two men then interrogate the boys and Casy makes a comment that angers them and they hit him in the head with a pick ax and kill him. Retaliating in anger for his fallen friend, Tom kills one of the policemen suffers injuries and then runs off to hide in order to avoid being charged and sent back to Oklahoma due to his parole.
The rest of the Joads find work on a cotton farm and go to work while Tom hides in a cave in case his suspiscious injuries would cause him to be interrogated. The family brings him food and take care of him while he hides out. Once again the future is looking pretty bleak for the perseverant Joads.
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