Grace walks in the prison yard and hallucinates red peonies blooming from the gray gravel.

Dr. Simon Jordan visits Grace's prison cell for the first time and presents her with an apple.

Simon meets Reverend Verringer, who has hired him to evaluate Grace's mental state for a pardon petition.

Grace recounts how her mother dies and is buried at sea during the family's ocean crossing to Canada.

Mary Whitney bleeds to death after a botched abortion, and Grace collapses in an unconscious fit lasting hours.

Grace meets Nancy Montgomery through a cook who quietly warns the position may not suit a young girl.

Grace arrives at Kinnear's farm and meets Thomas Kinnear, the hostile James McDermott, and young neighbor Jamie Walsh.

McDermott reveals to Grace that Nancy and Thomas Kinnear are living as lovers, explaining Nancy's strange behavior.

McDermott tells Grace he plans to kill Nancy and Kinnear and threatens her life if she informs anyone.

Grace picks chives in the garden, hears a dull thud from inside the house, and her memory goes blank.

McDermott shoots Thomas Kinnear dead and forces Grace to help throw the body into the cellar.

Grace and McDermott are arrested in the United States and brought back to Canada to face murder charges.

Grace is convicted as an accessory to murder and sentenced to death, then faints when she hears the verdict.

A voice speaking through Grace during hypnosis claims to be Mary Whitney and confesses to the murders.

Grace is released from prison after a pardon is secured and accepts a marriage proposal from Jamie Walsh.

Grace Marks has spent years in prison when the ambitious young doctor Simon Jordan arrives to evaluate her sanity on behalf of a reform group seeking her pardon. He begins regular sessions with her in the Governor's parlor, while Grace carefully controls what she reveals. Through her narration, the reader learns of her traumatic early life — her mother's death at sea, her friendship with Mary Whitney, and how she came to work at Thomas Kinnear's farm where the murders occurred. The key events of that fatal day are narrated with striking gaps in Grace's memory, as she recalls hearing a thud and nothing more. After her trial, conviction, and near-execution, Simon's investigation reaches a crisis point during a disastrous hypnosis session that leaves the truth more uncertain than ever. Grace is eventually freed when a pardon is secured and she marries her childhood acquaintance Jamie Walsh in the United States.

The central story of Grace's imprisonment, investigation, and release.

The Governor's wife keeps a scrapbook of sensational criminal newspaper clippings that includes accounts of Grace's own case.

Grace reveals she bit asylum director Dr. Bannerling when he groped her breast while pretending to examine her.

Grace's father falls into alcoholism and cannot support his family, leaving them dependent on a relative's charity to survive.

The Marks family arrives in Toronto and Grace is forced by her father into domestic service at twelve years old.

Grace begins working alongside Mary Whitney at Alderman Parkinson's house, and the two young women become close friends.

Grace's father arrives at Parkinson's demanding Grace's wages, and Mary Whitney calls the stable hands to drive him away.

Grace's sister Katey visits to beg money, then the family heads west permanently and Grace never hears from them again.

George Parkinson refuses to acknowledge Mary's pregnancy, denies paternity, and gives her only five dollars to end her troubles.

Grace arrives at Kinnear's house and notices Nancy's gold earrings, piano lessons, and fine silk dress with growing suspicion.

McDermott tells Grace his troubled history as a soldier and drifter over supper, then begins flirting with her aggressively.

Nancy and Grace attend church together and are visibly shunned by every member of the congregation.

Simon lectures a gathering on nervous disorders, and the Committee afterward grants Dr. DuPont permission to hypnotize Grace.

Simon travels to Toronto and interviews Kenneth MacKenzie, Grace's trial lawyer, about the case and his belief in her guilt.

Simon visits Thomas Kinnear's former house and the graves of Kinnear and Nancy, searching for verification of Grace's story.

Letters reveal that Simon has suffered a severe head wound during the Civil War and lost parts of his memory.

The secondary events of Grace's story fill in the texture of her life before, during, and after the central drama. Her difficult childhood is defined by her father's alcoholism and the family's grinding poverty, and her early years in Canada are shaped by her labor as a domestic servant and her formative friendship with the outspoken Mary Whitney. At Thomas Kinnear's household, the tension between Grace and Nancy grows through small but revealing details — Nancy's expensive clothes and piano lessons signal her unusual and precarious position. Alongside these flashbacks, the present-day investigation unfolds through Simon's social obligations, his interviews with people connected to Grace's case, and his gradual loss of professional focus. The aftermath of the investigation is captured in letters that reveal Simon's breakdown, his Civil War service, and the head wound that costs him his memory, while Grace endures continued imprisonment before her pardon is finally achieved.

The supporting events and relationships that shape Grace's world.

Grace screams in terror when a visiting doctor opens his black bag, imagining it contains knives.

Simon attends a Sunday social gathering and meets Dr. Jerome DuPont, who describes himself as a neuro-hypnotist.

Grace deliberately invents a dream to tell Simon while keeping her real dream entirely private from him.

Jeremiah the peddler visits Alderman Parkinson's house and tells Grace she is one of his kind.

On Halloween, Grace's apple peel seems to form the letter J, while Mary's peel breaks three times in a row.

Grace hears a voice she believes is Mary Whitney's calling to be let in as Mary's body is laid out.

Jeremiah visits Kinnear's farm, warns Grace she is in danger, and offers to take her away with him.

Grace realizes Nancy is pregnant after watching her slip outside to secretly consult with a visiting doctor.

Grace sleepwalks outside during a violent thunderstorm and wakes convinced that someone in the household is going to die.

Grace recognizes Dr. Jerome DuPont as the peddler Jeremiah in disguise when she attends Simon's public lecture.

Nancy fires both Grace and McDermott, and Grace warns Nancy that McDermott intends to kill her, but Nancy dismisses it.

Jamie Walsh later reports he spoke with Grace calmly outside the Kinnear house on the evening of the murders.

Simon wakes to find his landlady Mrs. Humphrey in his bed and realizes he has had sex with her.

Mrs. Humphrey begs Simon to murder her husband so they can be together, and Simon flees Kingston the next morning.

Grace sews a Tree of Paradise quilt using scraps of Nancy's dress, Mary's petticoat, and her own prison nightgown.

The novel's most pivotal moments are defined by discoveries, premonitions, and decisions that alter the course of events. From Grace's early encounters with the mysterious peddler Jeremiah, who seems to see through her, to the troubling omens surrounding Mary Whitney's death, the story is threaded with moments that hint at hidden truths. At Kinnear's farm, Grace's growing dread manifests in her realization of Nancy's pregnancy and a terrifying sleepwalking episode that convinces her someone will die. The investigation is transformed when Grace recognizes Dr. DuPont as Jeremiah in disguise and privately agrees to cooperate with the hypnosis, leading to the session's shocking climax. Simon's own story reaches a crisis when his affair with Mrs. Humphrey collapses into a demand for murder and he flees Canada, leaving Grace's case forever unresolved. The novel closes on Grace herself — stitching the lives of the dead women into her quilt, achieving a private reconciliation the law and medicine never could.