Jo wonders why Laurie would lie to her about going to this year’s New Year’s Eve party. Amy points out that Jo and Laurie aren’t as close as they used to be. Jo shares her suspicions about Sallie with Amy, and they decide to ask Henry to help them hack Sallie’s computer. He’s able to access Sallie’s Google Drive, where they find the Jane Austen essay she submitted to Harvard. The revisions history shows evidence of a second author.

Meg is helping Sallie with her college admissions essay, but it’s getting worse with every draft. She helps Sallie come up with a more personal topic about her mother, a literature professor and Harvard alum, and then suggests that she tie this to the themes of Jane Austen’s novels. It’s Meg, not Sallie, who loves Austen and English literature, but she doesn’t want to follow in her father’s footsteps.

Amy and Jo confront Meg, and she admits that she’s been doing Sallie’s coursework for two years. She needs the money Sallie pays her to keep up with her peer group’s lavish lifestyle. She also helps with bills at home since Rob donated his book advance in an effort to regain the public’s goodwill. Now, they learn from Sallie’s brother that she’s missing. Jo wants to tell the police her theory that Beth knew about the cheating and that Sallie killed her to keep her quiet. They’re at the police station when Detectives Davis and Kirke arrive, having arrested John Brooke.

Jo and Amy quickly switch their suspicions from Sallie to John, which angers Meg. She tells the detectives about her scheme with Sallie, but Kirke says that Sallie’s alibi for the time Beth died is corroborated by video evidence. Kirke also says that they have evidence placing John at the scene of the crime.

Jo and Meg spy on a conversation between Mrs. March and Detective Kirke and learn that Mrs. March told Rob that if he left, he couldn’t come back. He hasn’t returned calls from her or the police. Jo feels sure that he doesn’t know Beth was killed, or he would have come home. Later, the sisters and their mother have an honest conversation about Rob’s choices and their feelings about them. Jo vows to find her father.

Beth has been dating Henry for a month and a half. They’re in love and talking about a future together. She goes with Henry to the hospital after his grandfather has a heart attack. There, Henry tells Beth about his mother dying by overdose and his fear that it was intentional.

The night before the March sisters will return to school—their mother insists that they need routine and stability—Jo hears from Detective Davis. He apologizes for accusing her of planting the recording device, saying that a second set of fingerprints they’d found on it is a match to John. Jo knows that John didn’t plant the recorder because she did. Davis was only wrong about her motive. She didn’t do it for attention, but to convince her father that his absence wasn’t making them safer so that he’d come home. When Jo confesses this to Laurie, he admits that he kissed Amy.

At the family cabin during the summer, Jo works on her manuscript for Little Women: Jo’s Version. Laurie vies for her attention and then tells her that he loves her. Jo only loves him as a friend, not romantically. The idea of love terrifies her, and she thinks she might never want it. Laurie is hurt by her rejection.

Police drop charges against John after Jo admits to faking the intruder incident on social media, and neighborhood doorbell camera footage proves that John dropped Beth off at home and left. John tells Meg that Beth was drunk and got sick; she then exited his car and ran toward the bridge. He followed and caught her when she fell, tearing his jacket and skin and leaving his DNA under her nails. Meg expresses her faith in John, and they acknowledge that they love each other.

Amy is suspended for drinking alcohol at school. At home, she keeps drinking to cope with her life being turned upside down by the investigation. Then Aunt March shows up, visiting from Manhattan for the first time in seven years. She tells Amy that she’s worried she might be responsible for Beth’s death.

Amy and Florence take a bus to Manhattan to ask Aunt March if she’ll pay for Amy to attend Fred Vaughn’s summer art program. Aunt March says that she can’t afford that on top of the cost for Beth to attend Plumfield. However, if Beth decides not to go, Amy can have the money. She insists, though, that Amy not try to sway Beth’s decision. Amy is elated because she’s sure that Beth won’t have the courage to go to Plumfield.

Aunt March worries that the deal she made may have led Amy to kill Beth. Amy is shocked by the accusation but admits that she did tell Beth about the deal when they fought at the party; Amy said that Beth didn’t deserve the money. Aunt March calls Amy arrogant for thinking her words could lead Beth to suicide because Beth was stronger than she got credit for. She’d made the effort to create a close relationship with her aunt, despite the woman’s aloofness, which Aunt March sees as a sign of strength.

Jo brings Beth to Plumfield for her audition. Beth is still unsure if she wants to attend because it would mean being away from her family and Henry. Jo urges her to push through those doubts and focus on all she can accomplish, professionally, with the musical training Plumfield offers. Beth decides that it’s time to find out what she wants.