Claire returns to Inverness with daughter Brianna and asks Roger Wakefield to find out what happened to men who fought at Culloden.

At St. Kilda church, Claire discovers a grave for James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser and claims he is her husband and Brianna's father.

Claire tells Roger and Brianna that she was transported back to 1743 through the standing stones at Craigh na Dun.

Jamie takes over Jared Fraser's wine business in Paris, gaining the social access needed to move in Charles Stuart's circles.

Claire diagnoses smallpox on a rival merchant's ship, causing its destruction and turning the Comte St. Germain into a dangerous enemy.

Claire and Mary are attacked in an alley outside the hospital; Mary is raped while Claire is saved by her reputation as La Dame Blanche.

Claire visits the Duke of Sandringham and finds Jack Randall alive; the man found dead at Wentworth was actually his orderly.

After discovering Jack Randall assaulted Fergus, Jamie challenges Jack to an illegal duel, breaking his promise to Claire.

Claire goes into premature labor at the duel site and loses her baby girl.

Claire offers herself to King Louis XV to secure Jamie's release from the Bastille.

A letter arrives at Lallybroch revealing that Jared Fraser pledged Jamie's loyalty to Charles Stuart's uprising without his knowledge.

The Jacobite army defeats the English at the Battle of Prestonpans, boosting Charles Stuart's confidence and momentum.

On the eve of Culloden, Jamie refuses Claire's suggestion that assassinating Charles Stuart is the only way to stop the battle.

Jamie kills Dougal MacKenzie to protect Claire, then escorts her to Craigh na Dun and sends her back through the stones.

Roger reveals to Claire that Jamie Fraser did not die at the Battle of Culloden as she had believed for twenty years.

Claire returns to Inverness in 1968 with her daughter Brianna and enlists historian Roger Wakefield to research men who fought at Culloden, ultimately revealing Jamie Fraser's grave and beginning her extraordinary confession. She recounts how she and Jamie traveled to Paris in 1744 to prevent the Jacobite Uprising by limiting Charles Stuart's access to funds, quickly establishing themselves in French royal society. Despite their best efforts, the rebellion gathers momentum, and a series of tragedies unfolds—including the devastating loss of Claire's baby after Jamie's fateful duel with Jack Randall, and Claire's desperate bargain with King Louis XV to free Jamie from prison. After returning to Scotland, Jamie is dragged into the very uprising he tried to prevent, leading his men through Prestonpans and toward the inevitable disaster at Culloden. On the eve of the final battle, Jamie sends Claire back through the standing stones to safety, seemingly sacrificing himself—until Roger's final revelation shatters everything Claire believed about how Jamie's story ended.

The headline events of Claire and Jamie's story, from Inverness to Culloden.

Roger finds newspaper clippings in his uncle's belongings revealing that Claire disappeared for nearly three years and returned to Inverness pregnant in 1948.

Roger and Brianna visit the Culloden battlefield museum together and leave flowers at the Fraser clan grave marker.

Jamie meets King Louis XV at Versailles and makes a strong impression, becoming a regular attendee at royal court gatherings.

Claire visits Master Raymond's herbalist shop and discovers he sells deceptive and ineffective potions to his wealthy Parisian clients.

Jamie brings a young orphaned pickpocket named Fergus into his household and hires him to steal correspondence from Charles Stuart's home.

Jamie decodes Charles Stuart's secret correspondence and discovers that Charles is independently funding the rebellion through his own private business ventures.

Mother Hildegarde helps Claire and Jamie decode a piece of sheet music that conceals a secret offer of money to support Charles's cause.

Claire is poisoned with cascara during a visit to Versailles, and Master Raymond later gives her a white crystal necklace to detect future poisonings.

A dinner party erupts in chaos when a drugged Mary Hawkins runs screaming downstairs and Alexander Randall is arrested by the royal police.

Claire judges a secret royal tribunal and participates in the death of the Comte St. Germain by poison.

Jamie and Claire reconcile, and Jamie reveals that Jack Randall survived the duel but was left permanently unable to father children.

Claire provides Colum MacKenzie with cyanide at his own request to end his suffering, but he later dies of natural causes.

At Falkirk, Dougal MacKenzie surrenders Claire to English soldiers as a supposed prisoner to allow the Highland men to escape.

Murtagh kills the Duke of Sandringham after learning the duke orchestrated all the attacks on Claire and Jamie during their time in Paris.

Claire, Roger, and Brianna travel to Craigh na Dun and watch Gillian Edgars pass through the standing stones before she can be stopped.

Behind the main sweep of Claire and Jamie's struggle lies a web of crucial discoveries and secondary dramas that quietly determined the outcome. In Paris, Jamie builds his intelligence network through Fergus and decodes Charles Stuart's secret plans with help from Mother Hildegarde, while Claire navigates dangerous new alliances with the mysterious Master Raymond. A poisoning attempt at Versailles and the chaos erupting at Claire's dinner party expose hidden enemies, culminating in a royal tribunal where Claire is forced to judge the lives of Master Raymond and the Comte St. Germain. Back in Scotland, the hard-won victory at Prestonpans proves hollow as the rebellion grinds inevitably forward, and Claire is drawn into the fates of the dying Colum MacKenzie and the treacherous events at Falkirk. In the 1968 frame, Roger and Brianna piece together the hidden history while their journey to Craigh na Dun delivers the final, undeniable proof that Claire's extraordinary story is true.

The supporting events and discoveries that shaped the long road to Culloden.

Roger reads his uncle's journal and learns that Frank Randall knew about Claire's mysterious return and pregnancy and agreed to raise the child as his own.

Claire reveals to Brianna and Roger that she is the wife whose name appears alongside Jamie Fraser's on the gravestone at St. Kilda.

Roger shows Brianna the old newspaper clippings, and Claire explains she traveled with Jamie to Paris specifically to prevent the Jacobite Uprising.

News that merchant Hawkins's niece Mary is engaged to a Randall makes Jamie fear that Jack Randall may not actually be dead.

Jamie and Claire encounter a young secretary named Alexander Randall at Versailles and initially mistake him for the supposedly dead Jack Randall.

At a gathering at Louise de Rohan's home, Claire is introduced to Mary Hawkins and recognizes her name as the future wife of Frank's ancestor.

After the alley attack, Murtagh demands that Jamie punish him for failing to protect the women and swears a new oath of vengeance.

Jamie admits he invented the La Dame Blanche story to protect his fidelity at a brothel, not realizing he had created a dangerous reputation for Claire.

At the royal stables, the Duke of Sandringham secretly offers to clear Jamie's Scottish murder charges in exchange for abandoning his friendship with Charles Stuart.

While recovering at Louise's country estate, Claire learns from a Protestant preacher that Master Raymond once fled Geneva under deeply suspicious circumstances.

Claire discovers that Jack Randall sexually assaulted Fergus, revealing the true reason Jamie broke his promise to Claire and challenged Jack to a duel.

At Alexander Randall's dying request, Jamie and Claire witness the marriage of Mary Hawkins and Jack Randall, ensuring Frank Randall's future genetic lineage.

Dougal MacKenzie overhears Claire's suggestion to assassinate Charles Stuart and attacks her in fury, forcing Jamie to kill him to protect his wife.

Claire removes Jamie's silver ring and finds an engraving inside she never knew existed, giving Roger the proof he needs to believe her story.

Claire tells Roger that his ancestor was the illegitimate child of Geillis Duncan and Dougal MacKenzie, revealing his personal connection to her story.

This pool follows the moments of discovery and decision that quietly reshaped the course of Claire and Jamie's story. In 1968, Roger uncovers the truth about Frank's knowledge of Claire's strange return, while Claire herself finally reveals the secret she has kept from Brianna for twenty years—that Jamie Fraser is her true husband and Brianna's biological father. In the 1740s flashback, each revelation raises the stakes higher: the fear that Jack Randall is still alive, the shock of meeting his look-alike brother Alexander, and the growing understanding of the hidden forces working against them in Paris. Secrets continue to break open across the novel's second half—Jamie's invented La Dame Blanche story, the duke's concealed agenda, and the true reason Jamie dueled Jack Randall—fundamentally changing how Claire understands her husband and what forgiveness between them can mean. The pool closes with the two revelations that seal the novel: Claire's disclosure of Roger's surprising ancestry, and the engraving discovered inside Jamie's ring that finally gives Roger proof enough to believe everything.

The key revelations and turning points that changed everything for Claire and Jamie.