Blythe attends the fox hunt, where she is surprised to see Prince Aris, who asks where Signa has gone. Blythe tries not to think about Signa and the lingering questions she has for her. Eliza tries to get the prince alone, away from Blythe. Gossiping about Everett with Eliza, Blythe learns that he and Charlotte were once romantically involved, but Julius did not approve of the match. This makes Blythe suspicious of the couple. After revealing this information, Eliza suddenly becomes ill and rides back to the house, leaving Blythe alone in the woods with Prince Aris. 

Prince Aris hears something in the woods and goes to investigate, and Blythe’s curiosity leads her to follow him deeper into the woods. The two find a baby fox whimpering and bleeding, and Blythe is surprised when Prince Aris suggests taking it and nursing it back to health. Prince Aris suggests using Blythe’s carriage, making her wonder where his carriage is and why she knows nothing about his family. As they head toward her carriage, Blythe sees Eliza’s horse returning to the stable. Worrying for the ill woman, who possibly has a murderer in her house, Blythe tells Prince Aris to go to the carriage while she seeks Eliza.

Blythe follows Eliza into Wakefield Manor and runs into her lady’s maid, Sorcha, who tells her that Eliza has been getting sick frequently. Blythe wonders if someone has been poisoning Eliza, as someone poisoned her, still unaware that Percy was her poisoner. She takes the tea Sorcha was bringing to Eliza, planning to test it for poison. She is about to do so when Prince Aris finds her and forces her to tell him what she is doing. Blythe is reluctant to drink possible belladonna, and Prince Aris kisses the tea into her mouth, stunning her. Blythe rushes from the room and finds Eliza, who has taken laudanum and fallen fast asleep. Blythe sees that Eliza is clutching a small vial of herbs in her hand and tries to take it. When she inadvertently touches Eliza, Blythe sees her turn into a decaying skeleton, as she once saw Elaine do. Blythe believes she is hallucinating again, and when Prince Aris finds her, she rushes out of the house with him.

Signa goes into the neighboring town of Fiore and feels somewhat at peace on the seaside. She sees the spirit of a drowned child across the street as she places an advertisement for servants in the local newspaper. The spirit asks Signa to comfort her mother, who comes to the pier every day looking for him. Signa relays messages from the boy to the mother to reassure her and help the boy pass on. Despite the circumstances, Signa feels warmth as she realizes what she can do for others.

On the morning of her father’s trial, Blythe rides to Wisteria Gardens with William, the groom. Prince Aris answers the door, revealing he sent all of his staff back to his hometown. Blythe fears being alone with him, aware that rumors will circulate, but she must speak to him about her father. When Prince Aris denies her request to vouch for Elijah at his trial, Blythe tries to bargain with him, offering to marry him. She knows he came to town to look for a wife, and she is one of the most eligible ladies of the season. Prince Aris laughs at her offer but suggests he would be willing to help if Blythe put in a good word for him with Signa. When Fate sees that Blythe’s relationship with Signa has changed, he forces Blythe to divulge what she knows about Signa’s powers.

Blythe is surprised that Prince Aris seems to believe her, guessing he must be like Signa. Fate is surprised that Blythe can tell he is different, attributing it to the effects of her repeatedly cheating death and fate. At Blythe’s threats and insistence, Fate tells her everything about Signa, Death, and himself, claiming that he is trying to save Signa from Death and his powers. Fate tells her that her father will be sentenced to hang and has two weeks left to live. He offers to save Elijah if Blythe can get Signa to agree to marry him, which she will indicate by shedding a drop of blood on a golden tapestry.

Though she is beginning to enjoy her life at Foxglove, Signa feels guilty for leaving Elijah behind in jail. She tries to use the powers of Life to grow the flowers in her parents’ garden but fails, and Amity asks if she has been imagining these powers. Amity asks if there were any constants in the times she used Life’s powers, and Signa tries to recreate the heat she felt before by sitting in front of a fire. Death arrives and tells her that Elijah has been found guilty and sentenced to die in two weeks. Signa hopes she can get control of her new powers to save Elijah, but she tells Death that they will need Fate’s help.

Death brings Fate to Foxglove, destroying the peace Signa feels there. Fate tells her what Blythe has revealed about her, shocking Signa. She asks Fate to teach her how to use Life’s powers, which Fate is happy to do, thinking it will bring her closer to him. When he tries to get Signa to bring a dead rose back to life, she is unable to alter it, and they argue. When Signa says that she plans to bring Elijah back from the grave after his execution, both Fate and Death are alarmed, knowing this would change the natural order of things. Fate urges Death to convince her to give up the idea, but Signa says she will hate Fate forever if he does not help her to learn her Life powers and discover Julius’s murderer. Fate instructs her to throw a party to discover who the murderer is, then storms out of Foxglove.

Two days after her father’s trial, Blythe is shocked to receive an invitation to a ball at Foxglove. Blythe has been unable to conduct more research since her father’s trial. She continues to think about all the strange things she has seen, remembering Prince Aris’s demand as she clutches the tapestry he gave her. She writes a letter inviting Prince Aris to the ball, which he claims he would not miss for the world.