<P> Sofia returns for a visit and promptly gets into a fight with Harpo's new girlfriend, Squeak, knocking Squeak's teeth out . In town one day, while Sofia is enjoying a day out with her new beau, a prizefighter, and their respective children, the mayor's wife, Miss Millie, approaches the group . She begins to "finger" Sofia's children (physically examine them in a way reminiscent of slaves on an auction block) without bothering, at first, to speak to their mother or ask permission . At first, Sofia silently endures . Miss Millie then looks up and addresses Sofia, remarking on how clean the children are and bluntly asks Sofia if she would like to be her maid . Sofia, who does not work as a maid, straightforwardly refuses saying "Hell no ." The mayor then pushes his wife aside, calling Sofia "girl" and daring her to repeat herself . When Sofia does so defiantly, the mayor slaps Sofia . Sofia responds by using her fist to knock the mayor, her assailant, onto the ground . The police quickly arrive at the scene and brutally beat Sofia as she pleads with the prizefighter not to intervene on her behalf and instead to take her children to safety . Sofia emerges from her ordeal with a cracked skull, broken ribs, her face rendered nearly unrecognizable, and blind in one eye . Sofia is subsequently sentenced to 12 years in jail . </P> <P> Squeak, a mixed - race woman and Sheriff Hodges' illegitimate niece, attempts to blackmail the sheriff into releasing Sofia, resulting in her being raped by the sheriff . Squeak cares for Sofia's children while she is incarcerated, and the two women develop a friendship . Sofia is eventually released and begins working for Miss Millie, which she detests . </P> <P> Despite being newly married to a person called Grady, Shug instigates a sexual relationship with Celie on her next visit . One night Shug asks Celie about her sister, and Shug helps Celie recover letters from Nettie that Mister has been hiding from her for decades . </P> <P> The letters indicate that Nettie befriended a missionary couple, Samuel and Corrine, the well - dressed woman that Celie saw in the store, whom Nettie eventually accompanied to Africa to do missionary work . Samuel and Corrine have unwittingly adopted Celie's son and daughter (by Celie's father), Adam and Olivia . Corrine, noticing that her adopted children resemble Nettie, wonders if Samuel fathered the children with her . Increasingly suspicious, Corrine tries to limit Nettie's role in her family . </P>

What happened at the end of the color purple