Amy is painting at Fred’s studio when he tries to kiss her. Beth arrives early to pick her up and sees it. She warns Amy to be careful with him, but Amy becomes defensive about Fred’s intentions. Fred, suspicious, asks what they’re arguing about, and Beth says that she’s just looking out for her sister.

Sallie believes that John told police about her academic fraud and tells Meg that she’s suing him for defamation, knowing that he’ll be overwhelmed by legal fees. At Sallie’s cruel indifference toward John’s fate, Meg decides that their friendship is over and admits she confessed to the scheme.

Later, Meg notices Amy ignoring a barrage of texts. Amy says that they’re about Henry’s grandfather being back in the hospital and asks Meg to check on him there. In the hospital waiting room, Meg decides to finally read Little Women. Henry tells her that he’s read it once or twice and says that the sisters’ father deserves to be canceled.

Beth tells Henry that she’s decided to go to Plumfield. He becomes angry and says that he can’t believe she would leave him. Then, he calms down and apologizes. They agree to stay together and make the long-distance relationship work.

Meg finishes Little Women and admits to Jo that it’s a great story. She believes that readers, not the author, made them into stereotypes. Their father gave her character more depth than she’d expected, showing her positive traits as well as her flaws. Jo says that she asked their father once why Beth had to die in the story. He told her that Beth was the best of them, so her loss would stay with readers forever.

Back at school, Amy confronts Florence about New Year’s Eve. Fred lied about having a party to get Florence alone. She admits that they were intimate but insists that it was consensual; however, Amy knows that Florence had been a virgin and had never even kissed anyone prior to that.

When Florence was leaving the Gardiner party with Fred, Beth had tried to stop her. Fred heard Beth call him a creep, which Amy sees as a possible motive. She suspects that Fred may have also taken advantage of Kitty Bryant, his former protégé, so she messages Kitty on social media.

Beth joins Henry at his house to celebrate his grandfather’s birthday. Later that night, they have sex for the first time. Henry admits to being nervous, but Beth wants to go for it.

Amy learns that Fred took advantage of at least six girls, including Kitty, who are all willing to talk to the police. His summer program is merely an opportunity for him to groom and prey on vulnerable girls. She tells Jo, who realizes that she saw Fred at the candlelight vigil. Jo accuses Amy of putting Florence and Beth in danger out of selfishness and jealousy. Amy feels destroyed and wants to hurt Jo back. She finds Jo’s notebook and is shocked to realize that Jo has been turning Beth’s murder into a book manuscript.

Jo tells Detective Davis what Amy revealed about Fred, but Davis keeps shifting the conversation away from Fred to talk about Jo’s alibi. He brings up her book deal and her editor’s request for more drama and a bigger hook; he then reveals that he has her notebook. Davis accuses Jo of killing Beth for the story and says that she’ll be arrested soon.

On New Year’s Eve, Jo is contemplating how to keep her opportunity for a book deal alive. She’s interrupted by Amy and Beth, who are getting ready for the party. Beth chooses an out-of-character dress; it’s a sequin-covered attention-grabber. She’s excited to be different from her usual self. With Meg joining by phone, the four sisters express their love for each other before parting for the night.

Jo learns that Fred has an alibi for the time Beth died and comes home from the police station in despair. When Amy apologizes for giving Jo’s notebook to Detective Davis, it leads to more fighting. Amy accuses Jo of exploiting Beth’s death. Mrs. March disagrees, saying that writing is the only way that Jo can process things, just like her father. Meg observes that Rob just wanted the world to love them as he did, causing Jo to wonder if Beth’s murder wasn’t motivated by hate but by obsession. She vows to investigate this theory and find the killer.

Henry joins the March family for their Christmas Eve dinner. Beth hopes that her father will surprise them and come home for Christmas. Henry says that she should hate her father and insists that Rob isn’t coming back. He storms out during dinner, still angry about Beth going to Plumfield. As they argue, she recognizes that his actions are manipulative and selfish. She tries to break things off, but he becomes aggressive and forces her to say that they’re still together. Later, Beth doesn’t tell her family what happened with Henry because she doesn’t want them to think she’s naive or weak.

Jo finds three accounts on social media that seem obsessed with Beth’s character in Little Women. She goes to Henry’s house and asks him to help identify them by tracing the users’ IP addresses. Henry tells Jo that nobody has shown any concern for his grief over losing Beth. After agreeing to help her, he changes his mind and leaves. Jo learns from his grandfather, who confuses her with Beth, that Henry and Beth had broken up. She finds a bin in Henry’s room with every book her father has written, including a well-read copy of Little Women.