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Over the next week, Anna and Dmitri see a lot of each other and become lovers. On the evening of a particularly warm day, Anna and Dmitri walk to the pier to see the steamer arrive on the dock. They stand among the crowds and admire the sea while they wait for the ship. The wind caused the sea to be very rough that evening and, as a result, the steamer is late to arrive. Anna and Dmitri remain on the pier well after the sun has already set. Dmitri is keen to admire the beauty of both the surroundings and his new lover. Anna, on the other hand, appears anxious and distracted and keeps asking Dmitri a series of questions without really processing any of his answers. Dmitri also notes that Anna has been scanning the steamer as if she is waiting for someone and that she grows uncomfortable when strangers see the two of them acting affectionately.
Dmitri tries to suggest that the two of them go for a drive. Anna makes no answer and her mood does not improve, so Dmitri shifts gears and suggests that the two of them simply retire to Anna’s room. The lovers arrive in Anna’s hotel room and Dmitri begins to romanticize Anna’s youth and compare her to other women that he has had affairs with in the past. In contrast to the older women with whom he used to have affairs and who would occasionally display a “rapacious expression” on their beautiful faces, Anna excites Dmitri's desire with her fresh and unaffected nature. Dmitri is also pleased that Anna bears no similarity to his wife because he despises being intimate with her. In particular, Dmitri is drawn by her “diffidence” and the “angularity of inexperienced youth.”
Dmitri is soon broken from his reverie by Anna’s anxious accusation that Dmitri cannot possibly respect her because of her disloyalty to her husband. Dmitri tries in vain to convince her that this is not the case but Anna is convinced that she is a “fallen woman” who has given in to vice. She then proceeds to give a frantic and lengthy rant where she explains that she married her husband when she was very young and that she soon felt dissatisfied by her lot in life. She continues that, in an attempt to temporarily escape, she lied to her husband and said that she was ill so that she could travel to Yalta alone. Dmitri listens to her panicked speech but is “bored to death” by it. He attempts to calm Anna down and is eventually successful.
Every evening the couple observes the sunset from the vantage point over Yalta at Oreanda and are impressed anew by the scenery. The only things that mar Anna's happiness are the thought that her husband, Von Diderits, will send for her, and her continued fear that she has lost Dmitri's respect by sleeping with him. In the end, Von Diderits sends Anna a letter urging her return, and she leaves Dmitri with something like relief. When parting with Dmitri, Anna states, "It's a good thing I am going… It’s the intervention of Fate!" The section ends with Dmitri noting that he, too, should be heading north soon.
