A quote from a book titled A Guide to Etiquette states that “civility laws regulating behavior” are designed to “elevate” people (67). The author reasons that “the highest standard can be achieved only at the highest cost” (67).

Upon arrival, Loredana descends from the jet under a multitude of surveillance drones programmed to spot less-than-civil behavior. She carefully maintains the formal demeanor that has been drilled into her as she joins Harrison and Charlotte outside the plane. Charlotte insists on traveling with Loredana, and when Harrison realizes that neither woman has a saber, he shows dread over the prospect of “defending” them. 

On the hoverbus to the train station, Harrison reveals that students are using a social-media platform called Quill to track Loredana, whom they have nicknamed “Miss Bliss,” along with six other students whose parents supported the Bliss ban. 

At the station, a mob of students recognizes Loredana and follows them to the train platform, blocking their carriage. Harrison’s acquaintance Mr. Lee confronts them on behalf of the pro-Bliss crowd, demanding an introduction to Loredana (as it’s illegal for Public Persons to speak to unintroduced strangers). When Harrison refuses, Lee, who’s the more skilled fencer, threatens him with a duel. Harrison warns that it won’t be his saber Lee will be facing; he enters en garde as his Blue’s “entourage” approaches; Lee, understanding that attacking Harrison would mean challenging his Blue directly, backs down. After safely escorting Loredana and Charlotte onto the train, Harrison departs to protect his own reputation, severing contact with Loredana. She reflects that his relationship with Vivan is also now a liability for him.

Aboard the train, Loredana notices that her chair has been doused in something foul smelling, like fermented food. She then sees Jane Bradford, the daughter of the judge who issued her weapons ban a year ago. Although Jane is now being targeted just like Loredana because her family supported the Bliss ban, Loredana wordlessly prevents Jane from sitting next to her. Jane dejectedly sits elsewhere. A service Pinkie refuses to take an order from Jane and then malfunctions in the same way when it gets to Loredana. Realizing that there’s an organized, immediate threat to them both, Loredana understands that she must get off the train.

A quote from The Civil Citizens’ Survival Guide explains that a Blood Ring allows citizens to “conduct financial transactions, access restricted areas, […] enter into formal agreements,” and be exempted “from specific laws” if their status dictates it (81). 

As their train departs, Loredana realizes that the robot must have been reprogrammed to target her and Jane. She tries to use her Blood Ring to open an exit door, but her request is denied, and suddenly, the same Copper who made a copy of her plane ticket appears with two muzzled, aggressive dogs and orders her to return to her seat. The dogs snap at her as she tries to pass. Trapped and believing that an assassination is imminent, Loredana seeks temporary refuge with Charlotte in the lavatory and decides to seek help from the high-caste Blues, whom she despises. She has Charlotte contact her ex, Jack, who’s a Green, in order to gain access to Edmund Prew’s private carriage next door. Jack arrives just as the train enters a long tunnel, where Loredana anticipates that the Copper’s planned attack will take place. During the blackout, Jack reveals his high status—much higher than even being in an entourage would merit—and intimidates the Copper, who backs down after scanning Jack’s identification. With the immediate threat neutralized, Jack escorts Loredana and Charlotte toward the safety of the Blues’ carriage. Loredana resolves to convince Edmund to save Jane as well, hoping that Jane’s influential father will reward her by overturning her weapons restriction.

The chapter begins with a quote by a Blue named Richard Prew: “Blues are not slaves to nature. Nature is a slave to us” (92).

As Charlotte and Loredana enter Edmund’s private salon on the Blue first-year train carriage, they encounter Dickie Langley, a young Orange in Edmund’s entourage. He notes the foul smell on Loredana’s dress, and she explains that it came from her chair in the Green carriage. While they wait for Edmund to return from his fiancé Irene Hussey’s carriage, tension rises between Charlotte and the inebriated Jack. Loredana’s father calls, but she opts to text him instead so that he will not realize she is in a Blue’s carriage. He confirms that the Blues are retaliating against representatives who supported the Bliss ban and are targeting their families as well. He warns her specifically to avoid Blues. The situation escalates when Loredana and Charlotte learn that Jack invited them to the carriage without Edmund’s permission.

Just then, Edmund arrives, disheveled and bleeding. Irritated to find them in his carriage uninvited, he challenges Charlotte to a “shot duel”; they must each drink a shot while holding live deathstalker scorpions on their arm. Whoever is stung loses. If Charlotte wins, he’ll grant each woman a request; if he wins, he will claim a request from each of them. Loredana privately plans to use her request to get Jane a seat in the carriage and save her life. The women accept, recording the deal with their Blood Rings, and the duel begins. Edmund successfully downs his shot, and Charlotte is just about to follow when something strikes the train’s energy shield, startling a scorpion into stinging Edmund.

An announcement states that lightning struck the train due to a malfunction in the rod arrays. Loredana confronts Edmund; because he was stung, she and Charlotte won their deal. When Edmund cites the lightning as interference, Loredana threatens him with video evidence from her daffodil brooch and forces him to honor the agreement, which is legally binding. Loredana uses her favor to demand that he save Jane’s life. Stating that he already sent a Pinkie to retrieve Jane 20 minutes ago, Edmund claims that the timing is “irrelevant” and that Loredana’s request is fulfilled. Charlotte requests a special Blood Ring like Jack’s, which allows him to break the laws governing “civilized” behavior, but Edmund denies her, stating that he had only two such rings to give and has already given them to Jack and Dickie. Ownership can’t be forcibly transferred, so her request remains open. Before leaving, Edmund identifies the smell on Loredana’s dress as Irasbis Gas, a chemical that induces canine aggression.

When the train arrives at Grandmaster University, Dickie offers the women a ride, but first, he must locate his Pinkie. (Because he’s still a minor, he must be accompanied by a Pinkie chaperone that records his actions and sends reports remotely to the Office of Student Affairs.) As Dickie uses his special, blue-banded Blood Ring to access the Green carriage, Loredana surreptitiously photographs it. They soon discover that the carriage is a crime scene; Jane has been mauled to death by the dogs, and Dickie’s Pinkie has been destroyed. The investigators rule Jane’s death an accident, finding no trace of the self-destructing Irasbis Gas. The space also has no surveillance cameras. 

Later, as the group heads to the university, Loredana realizes that Dickie’s destroyed Pinkie may have recorded the murder and sent an automated report to the university before being destroyed. Dickie vows to gain access to this information. As they leave the station, Loredana spots Edmund with his fiancée, Irene, who’s a Blue. Her family founded the largest Bliss manufacturer (called Rapture) and are formidable enemies of Loredana’s father.

Loredana arrives at Grandmaster University and notes that the campus is designed so that all dormitories have a view of a centrally placed guillotine. After thanking Charlotte awkwardly for her help, using the stilted, formal language required by law of all Public Persons, Loredana follows her Pinkies to her suite. Overwhelmed by the day’s danger and stress, she has an emotional catharsis. When her father initiates a tense family video call, Loredana and her sisters confront him about the violent fallout and the danger to their family from the Bliss Prohibition that he enacted. They accuse him of sacrificing their safety and futures for his own ambition. Though he regrets their suffering, Bruce defends his actions and imposes strict new rules, confining his daughters to their respective locations and mandating nightly family calls. After Bruce signs off and her sisters hang up in a huff, Loredana rejects her mother’s offer to quit school, viewing it as a sign of weakness. To regain composure, she practices secretly with a fencing stick, renewing her resolve to endure her weapons restriction until she can regain the right to fence. Suddenly, she receives a cryptic message from Dickie and realizes its significance.

The chapter begins with a quote from the inventor of Pinkies, praising their efficiency and the fact that they don’t need love.

Dickie has accessed his destroyed Pinkie’s video evidence of Jane’s murder and sends the file to Loredana. Later, the Copper is arrested for his crime, and in the morning, she and the other Grandmaster students watch as he’s publicly executed by guillotine. However, the event brings her no closure, as she believes that the Copper’s behavior was influenced by his addiction to Bliss. Loredana reflects that the high-citizen Blues—who create, market, and distribute the drug, in addition to restricting access to it—are the true source of the Bliss problem. 

On the way to her history class, Edmund joins her in the elevator, and she fills him in on the Copper’s demise. He comments that he doesn’t watch the executions and then advises her to carry a saber. To hide her weapons restriction, she lies and claims not to like fencing.

In the auditorium, the Purple history professor, Rudolf Yates, puts on a live address from President Theodore Reeve, who reaffirms the Bliss ban and announces that any retaliatory violence against representatives or their families, regardless of caste, will be punished by public execution. This unprecedented threat enrages the Blues in the lecture hall. Amid the tension, Loredana inadvertently makes eye contact with Irene, who smiles and threateningly holds up five fingers. Loredana’s sense of being hunted intensifies, and her isolation is cemented when Harrison silently informs her via text that he must publicly cut ties with her to protect himself and Vivian, whose impending marriage is still unknown to his patron, Lily Burton. Loredana is left feeling utterly alone and vulnerable.

The chapter begins with a quote from Harrison: “Everyone wants greatness until they realize it requires sacrificing what they love for what they believe in” (146).

Living in constant fear of assassination, Loredana asks Dickie to help her arrange a truce with Irene, but when Irene ignores Dickie’s message on Loredana’s behalf, Dickie realizes that Irene believes that he, Edmund, and Jack are siding against her. Spooked, Dickie cuts ties with Loredana. During a family call, Loredana hides this danger from her father, knowing that he has too many battles to be fighting the Husseys as well. While scrolling through Grandmaster’s social-media platform, Quill, she discovers a gossip website called Tattletale, which reports that the engagement between Irene and Edmund is failing. This revelation suggests a possible motive for why Edmund helped her on the train.

Later, in the dining hall, Loredana observes a tense interaction between Edmund; his possessive twin sister, Rosamund; and Irene. Afterward, when Irene looks directly at Loredana and holds up three fingers, she realizes that it’s a countdown that likely culminates at the mandatory Stag Leap Gala in two days. The event is a rite of passage for first-years and will be held at the Speakeasy, a venue where campus behavior rules don’t apply. After emailing a request to skip the gala, she returns to her suite to find Charlotte waiting outside, finally ready to talk.

A quote from a citizen notes that Blues became the top caste because they were engineered for “endurance.”

Loredana and Charlotte reconcile, and Charlotte agrees to stay by Loredana’s side. She reveals that she’s being targeted by Rosamund, who believes that Charlotte is trying to renew her relationship with Jack. Loredana learns that she has no choice but to attend the mandatory Stag Leap Gala. She confesses her two-year weapons restriction to Charlotte and explains that she can’t legally defend herself if Irene attacks her. She and Charlotte plan to study the Speakeasy’s layout so that they can hide from the Blues during the gala.

They spend two exhausting days studying the venue’s blueprints to map out hiding places and escape routes. Just before the gala, Loredana’s father calls with mixed news. Judge Bradford has refused to suspend her weapons restriction, leaving her defenseless. However, Bruce has secured a powerful new ally: Winston Glass, a legendary Orange tech mogul whose company, Cerebrum, invented the Bond, hovercraft, and many genetic modifications. Glass supports Bruce’s cause against Bliss and is sending an unspecified “gift” to help protect those who are now being targeted over the ban, including Loredana.

A quote from a police sergeant notes the difference between Coppers dedicated to protecting people and those who simply want power.

In preparation for the Stag Leap Gala, Loredana dons her daffodil brooch/hidden camera and the gift from Glass: a small metal device that she attaches to her chest beneath her clothes. For the event, she and Charlotte go to the Speakeasy, a place where the usual behavior laws no longer apply. They intend to hide, but they learn that they must take part in a first-year hazing ritual that requires them to clear a gauntlet of obstacles and reach the seventh story of the lodge. To access the stairs, they’re forced to choose from a range of mysterious drinks. As they down the drinks and ascend toward their intended hiding spot on the second floor, they’re intercepted by Coppers who are specifically looking for Loredana. She resists and fights back, striking a Purple officer and losing 140 civil credits as a result.

Forcibly separating the two friends, the Coppers drag a resisting Charlotte upstairs, and the Purple Copper escorts Loredana to a hidden cellar, where she discovers a secret part of the Speakeasy for high-citizens; this space and its elevators are not on the public blueprints. Before her communications are cut off, Charlotte tells her through the Bond that she’s feeling sick from the drink. The Purple Copper takes Loredana via elevator to a private lounge to meet Irene, the person who summoned her.

Irene, who suspects Edmund of cheating on her, offers Loredana a deal. Loredana must act as Irene’s spy and discover the identities of these women by a specific date. Realizing that Irene intends to kill these women in duels, Loredana refuses the offer. In response, Irene’s friends destroy Loredana’s Pinkie escorts, and Irene shoots at her with a rifle. However, Loredana is saved when Glass’s gift, a prototype shield device, suddenly activates and deflects the bullet.

Realizing that she’s being attacked, the Purple Copper helps her flee from Irene’s group; the two lock themselves in a private salon. The Copper introduces himself as Sergeant Arthur Croft. In the room, Loredana is shocked to see a photo of her father and President Reeve as young friends at Grandmaster. The pursuing Blues unleash a swarm of deathstalker scorpions on them, but Loredana pulls the Purple Copper up into the ventilation shaft, and they escape. Still in hiding, they learn that President Reeve has been shot and that a coup may be underway. Hostile Blues are now hunting and killing low-citizen students throughout the lodge. Before Croft returns to the fray, Loredana loans him her personal shield and tells him to return it once the crisis is over. She confirms that her father is alive but is in danger. Believing that she’s being hunted due to her family’s stance on the Bliss ban, she decides that her only path to survival is to find Edmund and join his entourage to become untouchable.

Injured and desperate, Loredana crawls through the Speakeasy’s ventilation shafts to find Edmund in a private gambling room, where he’s surrounded by a crowd of admiring Blues. To get his attention without being seen by the others, she drops her daffodil brooch onto his table. After he dismisses his companions, Loredana climbs down and demands to join his entourage for protection, leveraging their unfulfilled bargain. She strategically withholds the news of the coup. After hearing about Irene’s attack, Edmund agrees to take Loredana into his entourage for one year in exchange for her absolute loyalty and adherence to his “rules.”

An emergency alarm forces an evacuation, and they emerge to find the public areas of the Speakeasy swarming with Coppers. Loredana learns that President Reeve is alive and that the coup has failed. She then witnesses Sergeant Croft arresting Irene for attempted murder. When a hopeful Irene looks to Edmund for help, he publicly rejects her by insouciantly lighting her cigar and walking away. Edmund then officially accepts Loredana into his entourage by scanning his Blood Ring against hers. As she leaves in the hovercar with him, Loredana exchanges a triumphant look with the devastated, vengeful Irene.

While leaving the Speakeasy in Edmund’s hovercar, Loredana goes into shock and loses consciousness. When Edmund brings her around, she accidentally headbutts him, prompting his ire. As they watch a news report about the assassination attempt on President Reeve, Loredana is stunned to see her father hailed as a hero for shielding the president. Bruce’s actions were aided by Glass’s energy-shield technology. Loredana realizes that Edmund’s true motive for protecting her is to ensure that she can testify against Irene; if Irene is convicted and executed, he will be free of an arranged marriage to a person he dislikes. Using this leverage, Loredana negotiates better terms for her entourage membership, ensuring that she will have time off in the evenings.

Before they enter the Blue Dormitory, Loredana leans back inside the hovercar to retrieve her brooch and is disturbed to realize that Edmund wears the same cologne as Charles Blackwell, the Blue whom she killed in self-defense. Inside Edmund’s suite, she finds Jack and Dickie with a traumatized Charlotte, who explains that Rosamund assaulted her while she was drugged, shaving her head and carving an “R” into her scalp. This brutal attack convinces Charlotte that she must also join Edmund’s entourage for protection. However, she warns Loredana that Rosamund, who’s dangerously possessive of her brother, will now see them as a threat.