Mary and Gus are the last pair remaining during their fourth sitting at the studio. Mary flirts with Gus as she directs her position. They talk about whether they still would have ended up together in the summer term when the models have to sit in the nude; Mary indicates that Gus was always her first choice.

Mary explains that Lawrence imposes rules for the students to follow while painting. Gus suggests that Mary doesn’t need Lawrence to foster her artistic skills. Mary argues that she needs the foundations for her practice and adds that she would lose her parents’ financial support if she dropped out of school. She adds that Lawrence is a family friend, so her parents had to pay extra to get her admission. Mary has seen Gus’s work, and she contrasts her learned skill against Gus’s raw talent.

Several days later, Gus is working in her studio at Creta when a woman comes looking for the residency coordinator, Thea. The woman recognizes Gus as the model Mary chose instead of her. She introduces herself: Jean Guest. Jean talks about her last experience modeling to commiserate with Gus’s discomfort with the process.

Gus and Jean get to know each other. Gus expresses her desire to stay longer in Rome. Jean admits that she is a ceramics collector but mainly works as a therapist. She explains that she likes to model out of academic interest, reversing her role as an observer in her patients’ lives. Jean invites Gus to visit her. When Jean asks about Mary and her famous mother, Gus dismisses the question. Gus feels that she is becoming important through her association with Mary. Much later, Gus wonders if Jean was actively seeking her out.

Ibrahim questions Mary on the witness stand. Mary affirms her decision to undergo a “healing separation” from her family and that she is there to support her therapist. Mary reveals that she experienced suffering in different forms growing up, including disordered eating when she was 14. She categorically denies Anna’s claim that her childhood was happy. This provokes Anna into speaking up from her place in the court.

Mary denies that Jean turned her against her parents. Rather, Jean helped her to acknowledge her parents as “demons” who have always obstructed her most important relationships. She cites the public nature of the trial as an example of her parents making a spectacle out of her private life. When Mary insinuates that she saw Anna engage in multiple affairs throughout her childhood, Anna is once again provoked. Mary then describes the repressive nature of her childhood home. She claims that Anna dismissed her concerns, only intervening in extreme situations, like Mary’s disordered eating.

Mary affirms that Jean’s care has improved her life. She says that in Rome, she was self-destructive and lacking a sense of purpose. Mary denies that Jean leads a cult that plants false memories into people’s minds. She claims that, because of therapy, she has the strength to speak about her suffering. She ends her questioning by adding that she has thrived as an artist, distancing herself from the mode of thinking that her art school tried to instill in her. She is now also expecting a child, as she is six months pregnant. This shocks Anna and Gus.

Jean exchanges warm texts with Gus, inviting her to a house party. Gus fantasizes about bringing Mary to the party to impress Jean. Mary cannot make it to the party, however, so Gus proceeds to Jean’s alone.

Gus is surprised to learn she is the only person at Jean’s apartment. Jean observes that Gus looks unwell and offers to let her take a bath before everyone else arrives. Gus reluctantly accepts and relaxes in the bath for some time before she realizes that Jean is standing beside the bathtub. Jean apologizes for startling Gus and informs her that she has called off the party on Gus’s behalf. Gus offers to leave, not wanting to disrupt Jean’s plans. When Gus jokes about her prudishness, Jean probes into her background, getting Gus to talk about her religious family and how they avoided any conversation about the body.

Gus expresses her love for Rome. Jean offers to show her around. Gus is crestfallen, only because she imagined exploring Rome with Mary. Jean asks about Mary’s portrait of Gus. Gus shares that she hasn’t seen it yet because of the restrictions that Lawrence imposes on Mary. She goes further, accusing Lawrence of bullying Mary. Jean offers therapy for Mary.

Jean discusses her practice, confiding that though she had a difficult session earlier that day with her client, Oriel, she was reassured by Gus’s presence. She invites Gus to do a word association exercise required for her Italian professional accreditation. Through the exercise, Jean intuits that Gus has a difficult relationship with her parents. When she guesses that Gus’s parents aren’t interested in her life, Gus starts crying. Gus admits that her parents feel disappointed in her life choices. Jean deduces that Gus has a crush on Mary and tells her that she needs to like herself as well. Gus feels affirmed when they part ways for the night. While Gus is on the way home, Mary texts her to go to the nightclub, saying she “needs” Gus.

As the seasons change, Gus becomes more acquainted with Rome, thanks to Jean. She gradually realizes that Mary has no affection for Rome, but this does nothing to weaken her crush. Instead, Gus shares her feelings about the city with Jean, who encourages Gus’s crush by analyzing Mary’s psychology.

At the academy, Gus catches Lawrence verbally and physically abusing Mary over her painting technique. Mary later sees Gus watching from the door, prompting Gus to enter the room. Lawrence feigns innocence by complimenting Mary’s technique before he leaves. Mary doesn’t talk about what happened with Gus.

Gus reports the incident to Jean. Jean interprets that Mary is experiencing intense trauma and will need Gus to help her through it. She suggests that Mary desires Gus as well but won’t acknowledge it until she has admitted it to herself, which Jean can help her to do in therapy.

Carr cross-examines Mary on the stand. She asks about Mary’s sessions with Jean and points out that their meetings run longer than standard therapy sessions. Mary argues that she requires methods that break out of conventional practice to help her through her trauma. Carr asks Mary about the “memory retrieval therapy” method and how evoking past moments helps her with her trauma. When Mary explains that repressed memories need to be remembered before they are excised, Carr challenges that she may have been pressured to invent a traumatic situation for memories that were otherwise innocuous. Mary denies this.

Carr cites Jean’s “healing separation” rule as a common manifestation in cult groups. Carr reveals that Jean’s insistence on separating Mary from her family has forced Mary to move to a camp along the M1 highway. Mary downplays the severity of her living situation. Carr reveals that Mary has signed away her property income sources to Jean. This forces Mary to admit that she gave her properties to Jean to manage.

Carr reminds Mary that if she is still living at the camp when her baby is born, child protection services will likely intervene. Mary resolves that she’ll move back to one of the properties for her daughter’s sake, indicating that she depends on Jean for strength to live. Carr points out that while Jean was supposedly treating Mary for sexual promiscuity, Jean instructed Mary to withdraw from contraception. Mary defends this as her own choice. Gus is shaken over the revelation of the sex of Mary’s child, knowing that Jean always wanted a daughter.

Gus spends increasingly more time with both Mary and Jean. Jean helps Gus to connect her artistic life to the repression in her upbringing. Gus appreciates that Jean isn’t charging her, though she also envies Jean’s formal clients, like Oriel, feeling that they are being given stories that can help them make sense of their lives. Jean reminds her that she can help others like Mary by sending them to therapy, instead of paying Jean for her services.

Gus invites Mary to an exhibition event for residency members and alumni. She is pleased when Mary arrives and shows her work, which is inspired by an American Olympic gymnast. Gus is disappointed when Mary gives a poor interpretation of the work but recovers when Mary compliments and holds her hand.

Gus and Mary go out afterward, and Mary complains about her mother’s adulterous behavior. She explains that her parents tried to compensate for their neglect by spoiling her when all she really wanted was a semblance of normalcy in life. She was homeschooled but found her tutors equally neglectful of her learning needs. Gus gradually realizes that she has misrepresented her own life in a way that makes it look aspirational to Mary.

Mary talks about Vincenzo, whom she admits is “weird.” She elaborates that he has sexual fetishes that often make Mary feel distanced from him. Later, as Mary is paying for the bill, she offers Gus a line of cocaine in the bathroom. They walk around the city, feeling aimless and triumphant, then take two unattended bikes and cycle around.

Gus and Mary end up in Mary’s apartment, where Gus writes Mary’s name on her skin. As they lie together in bed, Gus touches Mary’s thigh, which Mary registers with pleasure. They do not have sex, however, as Mary goes to sleep. The next morning, Vincenzo calls Mary’s phone. Gus teases her about it instead of giving Mary her phone. This upsets Mary, who walks away to answer the call. Gus wonders what she did wrong and remembers that Mary had a notification from a mentoring scheme page, telling her that the sender dreamed of her. It is only years later that Gus realizes the message was from Jean.

Gus becomes increasingly dependent on Jean, relying on her for support in her life in Rome and her eventual return to London. Gus fantasizes about living as a practicing artist with Jean’s support and Mary’s companionship. However, Mary has become cold towards Gus ever since her night at Mary’s apartment. She becomes confused when Mary turns warm again and alternates between the two moods.

Mary invites Gus to meet her godfather, Beaker. Gus recognizes Beaker as a high-profile American actor. Mary and Beaker talk about how Gus is good for Mary, both in her personal life and in her artistic life. Mary especially admires Gus for being an excellent model for her work. Beaker asks about Mary’s relationship with Anna, prompting Mary to imply that her mother’s worries about her being in love are true. Mary doesn’t admit that she is in a relationship with Vincenzo, but she suggests that she and her lover are keeping their partnership secret for the moment.

Beaker gets Mary and Gus a suite to share at his hotel. While exploring the rooms, Gus gets several messages from Jean, telling her that she dreamed of her and Mary. Gus clips the chat short, resenting Jean’s interference in her relationship with Mary. Gus and Mary spend hours playing around in the suite, and taking the drugs that Beaker has given Mary. Mary asks Gus to stay through the next term, so that she can keep her as a model.

Mary invites Gus to sleep in her bed. Gus touches her stomach, prompting Mary to kiss her. As they continue kissing, Gus encourages Mary to value her freedom from other people. Mary asserts that she only appears to be free. They have sex.

The next morning, Gus finds Mary talking on the phone as if nothing had happened between them. Gus leaves the suite and goes to Jean, lamenting that Mary is ignoring her again. Jean reassures her, indicating that Mary’s family may be the problem, as they make her feel uncertain about entering a relationship with Gus. She affirms that Mary is in love with Gus.

Gus arrives early at the courthouse for the next day of the trial, in which Jean will testify against Anna. However, the trial has been delayed pending the admission of private evidence. Gus finds Lucy, who observes that Mary’s pregnancy marks a shift in Jean’s rules. Oriel was strictly prohibited from fraternizing with anyone, let alone a man. The court opens before Lucy can reveal what has become of Oriel.

After Jean recites her oath, she looks up into the gallery but fails to see Gus. Gus still longs for Jean’s attention.