Pamela also becomes pregnant, with Jumpy Joshi's child. Meanwhile, Mishal Sufyan starts an affair with Hanif Johnson, a well-to-do lawyer who lives at the Shaandaar Cafe, while Saladin’s wife Pamela leads a public investigation into allegations of witchcraft being practiced by police officers. Within a few weeks, Gibreel’s film deal falls through because the film's producer, Billy Battuta, is arrested for fraud along with Mimi. In fact, his horns, tail and body continue to grow. Oddly, his rage shrinks his horns and his penis soon afterwards, the transformation recommences and he resumes his goat shape. When she mentions it to Saladin, he becomes enraged – he still resents how Gibreel refused to help him when he was arrested.

Hind loves to read imported magazines about Bollywood, and she one day she reads an article that reports Gibreel Farishta is returning to the screen. Saladin calls his producer, Hal Valance, who confirms that he has indeed been dropped from the show – because, he says, audiences prefer white actors. The next morning, he calls his old colleague, Mimi Mamoulian, and is dismayed to hear both that he’s been replaced at his television job on the alien show, and that Mimi is dating Billy Battuta, a notorious playboy and scam artist. However, Saladin remains silently frustrated to be helpless before people who are ‘not British.’ He has nightmares about Hyacinth Phillips, and about his wife’s affair with Jumpy. The Sufyans do their best to help Saladin – indeed, the two teenage daughters, Anahita and Mishal Sufyan, are delighted by his transformation. She is especially resentful that she has to manage the business, attracting customers with her excellent cooking, while he remains ineffectual. She also resents the fact that they had to move to London because of Muhammad’s involvement with the Bengali Communist party. She sees her husband Muhammad as an effeminate weakling. The narrator gives some background about the Sufyan matriarch, Hind Sufyan (not to be confused with Hind, Abu Simbel’s wife in the Jahilia plot). The Sufyan family agrees to help by housing him in their attic room. There, he asks the proprietor, Muhammad Sufyan, to house Saladin, who is becoming more panicked about his transformation. He gives Saladin a coat to cover his horns, and brings him to the nearby Shaandaar Cafe, a restaurant and hotel, for help.

Jumpy Joshi, guilty over his adultery, wants to take care of Saladin. The story returns to contemporary London.

The satanic verses sparknotes