Their work in Europe completed, Asher's parents move back to Brooklyn, at which point Asher decides to travel to Europe to view and study great art. He visits Florence in particular and spends many hours studying The Deposition as well as Michelangelo's David. Later, after relocating to Paris, Asher paints his masterpiece: two works that use the symbolism of the crucifixion to express his mother's anguish and torment, since there is no artistic form in the Jewish tradition that expresses these feelings this way. When these works are displayed at a New York art show (the first of his that Asher's parents have ever attended), the imagery so offends his parents and community that the Rebbe asks him to move away. Asher, sensing that he is destined to journey the world, to express its anguish through his art, but to cause pain by doing so, decides to return to Europe.