When Stalin dies in 1953, Ivan feels guilty for helping Kope and not saving Knorr. He leaves the police force and swears to fight the communist regime. In the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, he steps up as a leader, but is imprisoned after it fails. Released at the end of the decade, he returns to live together with Valerie in a single room of the former family estate. She falls ill while they search for the tonic recipe—after she dies, he fruitlessly continues the search. Ivan changes his name from Sors back to Sonnenschein, and concludes his storytelling after the end of the communist regime in 1989.