K. explores the law court offices and finds that they are sparsely furnished. Here, he meets the usher whose wife has been carried away. (She is the usher's wife). The usher agrees with K. that she is equally to be blamed. He asks K. to give the student a good thrashing. K. rushes with the usher, keeping pace with him, moving upstairs while peeping into the offices. He falls. He finds officials with the same beard cut as those in the courts and possibly belonging to the upper class. K. too meets them. The clerk of inquiries is stooping with his disorderly hair. At this point K. feels sick and stumbles outside in the daylight.

Here there is a major change in the boarding house occupancy. Fräulein Bürstner has moved out. Fräulein Montage has moved in. K. does not like her. Fräulein Bürstner refuses to meet him. She clears out while Fräulein Montage keeps K. engaged. K. peeps in and finds the captain and Fräulein Montage observing him.

One evening as K. left the office late he stops at the lumber-room in the office. The warders, Franz and Willem are being shipped because K. complains of his treatment to the examining Magistrate. Franz, the younger one pleads with K. that his sweetheart is waiting outside the Bank. K. rejects the thought of bribing the officials. The men shriek with the flogging. K. closes the door. The clerks in the office are unaware of the happenings. The situation is just the same the next day. K. orders the clerks to clear the lumber-room and goes home.

At this point K. meets a manufacturer in his office. The manufacturer introduces him to Titorelli, the painter who is well acquainted with most of the judges, since he paints their portraits. While he is busy with the case the assistant manager has already stepped into his shoes taking up his duties.

K. visits Tittorelli and learns about the different kinds of acquittal, seeking a solution. Next he proceeds to Dr. Huld's house. There Leni is entertaining Block, the tradesman who is treated and brainwashed like a dog by Dr. Huld. K. is disgusted and in spite of the lawyers veiled threats withdraws his case. He is back to his old routine in the bank. One day an Italian architect visits him and he proceeds to the Cathedral on an official appointment. The Italian architect does not turn up. But he meets the prison chaplain. The Chaplain delivers a sermon to him warning him of his impending 'fall'. The story ends with K.'s slaying by two men at a stone quarry on his thirty-first birthday. Life has come full circle.

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