Niko lies in his apartment in Janloon, feeling alienated and cynical about his role in the clan. A flashback reveals a recent incident where he disgracefully refused a formal duel with another Finger, Kitu, instead offering his expensive car to avoid the fight. For this, his uncle Hilo whipped him and imposed punishments.

Now, Niko reports for duty to Lott Jin, who is soon to be the new Horn. They are assigned a “three-ring” operation—involving No Peak, the Mountain, and the police—to capture arms smugglers in Mountain territory. They meet with the Mountain team, which is led by Ayt Mada’s popular and charismatic nephew, Ayt Ato. The encounter is awkward for Niko, who feels inadequate compared to his rival.

During the raid on a pool hall, the Mountain team kills the primary targets before Niko’s unit can engage. Ayt Ato then delivers a public speech and directs Koben Ashi, who physically applies a heated pipe to brand several Uwiwan civilians accused of sympathizing with the clanless, all for the benefit of the media. The incident leaves Niko feeling like a failure, convinced that unlike Ayt Ato or Lott Jin, he does not understand his own purpose as a Green Bone.

Shae secretly attends the memorial service for the Mountain’s former Horn, Nau Suenzen, and observes a grieving Ayt Mada. Shae’s husband, Woon, has retired as Sealgiver to be a stay-at-home father to their daughter, Tia. They discuss the new Lybon Accord, an international treaty targeting Ygutan’s military programs.

Shae then meets with Hilo and the current Horn, Juen Nu. Juen is retiring and recommends Lott Jin as his successor, which Hilo approves. They discuss the declining quality of intelligence on the Clanless Future Movement (CFM) being supplied by the Espenians and decide against adopting the Mountain’s cruel practice of branding sympathizers.

Later, Icho Dan, the Pillar of the Jo Sun clan from Toshon, formally surrenders his clan to No Peak. The Jo Sun clan was critically weakened in the Janloon bombing and can no longer stand on its own. Hilo accepts Icho’s pledge, absorbing his warriors and territory and expanding No Peak’s power.

Art Wyles, the CEO of the Espenian company Anorco Global Resources, oversees his controversial offshore jade mining operation from his house on Kekon’s Euman Island. He meets with Sunto, whose company now provides security for Anorco. Both men are devout followers of the Truthbearer religion, a faith centered around the “One Truth” embraced by those who refuse to pledge loyalty to a single clan, which opposes the state religion of Deliverantism.

Wyles reveals that the Espenian government is officially scaling back funding for Operation Firebreak, a secret program to combat Ygutanian influence worldwide. However, powerful figures in the government want the operation to continue covertly using private military contractors.

Wyles offers to acquire Sunto’s company, GSI, combining Anorco’s capital and access to jade with GSI’s trained personnel. Together, they will form a vertically integrated private army to fulfill the government contract and become immensely wealthy. Sunto agrees to the plan.

During a family dinner celebrating Ru’s graduation, Niko announces that he has taken a job outside the clan with the private military company GSI. Hilo is enraged, seizing Niko by the hair, yanking him from his chair, and shoving him into a wall. Niko defends his choice, expressing his desire for a life outside the clan’s rigid structure and questioning the sacrifices his father, Lan, made. When Hilo threatens to disown him, Niko walks out of the house.

The next day, Hilo and his four fists—Lott, Vin, Suyo, and Toyi—storm the GSI compound on Euman Island. He confronts Sunto, demanding he terminate Niko’s contract and offering a bribe, which Sunto refuses. Sunto recognizes that hiring the Pillar’s son is a strategic coup that will attract other Green Bone recruits, and he knows his status as an Espenian citizen on a government-backed mission gives him protection. Hilo leaves, vowing that Sunto will eventually pay for taking his son.

Anden returns to Janloon after a trip to Espenia, reflecting on the growing tensions he observed as Remi’s greed and power continued to escalate unchecked. He notes that his ex-boyfriend and No Peak lawyer, Cory, is “beyond frustrated” and hopes someone kills Remi soon. At his apartment, Anden reunites with his boyfriend, Jirhuya. When Anden invites him to the clan’s New Year’s party, Jirhuya refuses, worried that his own success will be dismissed and that he will be seen merely as a charity case associated with the Kauls. Their argument is interrupted by Niko, who has just left his family home and needs a place to stay.

Anden goes to the Kaul estate to confront an enraged Hilo. He pleads with Hilo not to disown Niko, reminding him that he has pushed people away before—citing Shae, Wen, and Anden himself. Hilo refuses, arguing that showing weakness will damage the clan. Anden makes an ultimatum: He is one of the few family members with a choice, and if Hilo casts out Niko, Anden will leave the clan as well, jeopardizing No Peak’s important interests in Espenia. The threat stuns Hilo into silence.

In Resville, Remi is besieged by enemies, including the Crews and Tomascian drug lords. He learns that Maik Tar—Kaul Hilo’s former Pillarman, exiled 12 years prior for murder—is in the city asking about him. Remi has Tar brought to him for a meeting.

Tar claims he is looking for a “fresh start” and wants to work for Remi, having heard that Remi awards jade to his followers—something Tar can never again receive from No Peak. Impressed by Tar’s legendary reputation and needing skilled leadership for his gang, Remi hires him on the spot, giving him a gun, money, and a car.

Anden takes Niko to the Janloon airport to see him off. Just before Niko boards his flight to Espenia for GSI training, Hilo arrives. He speaks to Niko alone, giving him an envelope containing a calling card and contact numbers for the Weather Man’s branch offices and overseas Green Bone allies, along with restored access to his bank accounts. He tells Niko he loves him but that he is on his own.

After Niko’s flight departs, Hilo meets Lott Jin at a hotel. There, they give final instructions to three other young Green Bones—Sim, Dasho, and Teije Inno—who have also been hired by GSI. The men are revealed to be No Peak spies, equipped with hidden surveillance devices. Their primary mission is to protect Niko and send intelligence back to the clan. In exchange, Hilo has guaranteed their families financial security and other significant favors.

Bero secretly returns to Janloon after being forcibly relocated by his Espenian handlers six years ago. He finds the city much changed, with the clans having brutally suppressed all anti-clan activity. He reconnects with an old associate, Tadino, who now bears a facial scar—a brand from the Mountain clan.

Tadino tells Bero that the Clanless Future Movement (CFM) was decimated after its foreign backer, Molovni, disappeared. Bero takes a low-profile job as a delivery driver. However, Tadino, embittered and radicalized, insists they must do something to fight back. He concludes that the only way to weaken the clans is to manipulate them into going to war with each other again.

Ru begins his studies at Jan Royal University, feeling a mix of excitement and sadness over Niko’s absence. As the Pillar’s son, he receives special treatment from No Peak loyalists on campus, which he handles graciously. Feeling lonely, he joins the campus chapter of a club for stone-eyes and Abukei students.

There, he is befriended by the group’s charismatic leader, Dano, an outspoken anti-clan activist. The two engage in frequent, spirited debates, with Dano arguing that the clans are an oppressive, obsolete system and Ru defending them as a force for Kekon’s protection and progress. When Ru mentions his new friend to Jaya, she becomes suspicious that Dano is a clanless sympathizer, forcing Ru to hide the friendship for Dano’s safety.

The Kaul family attends Jaya’s Pre-Trials at the Academy, where she performs impressively. However, Shae’s young daughter, Tia, is horrified by the Massacre of the Mice event, in which the students are required to kill a series of mice in a maze with their jade channeling powers. She bursts into tears, and Shae worries about her sensitive nature. Later, Shae proposes expanding No Peak’s business into Shotar, a country where the Mountain has a strong foothold. Hilo cautiously agrees to consider it.

That night, Jaya is arrested. She confesses to Hilo that she stabbed a boy in the groin with a talon knife for sexually assaulting her friend, Hana. Though angry about the scandal, Hilo grapples with Jaya’s frustration over her inability to earn jade through duels due to her family status. When she declares her ambition to one day become Horn of No Peak, Hilo is disturbed by her desire for such a dangerous position and insists there’s never been a woman Horn. Jaya replies, “There wasn’t a woman Pillar before Ayt Mada […] Are you saying our enemies can do more than we can?” (431). Hilo agrees to support her if she stays out of trouble. Later, Hana’s family arrives to pay tribute to Hilo for “managing to raise children who're as green and good-hearted as you are” (434).

In Resville, Remi holds a ceremony to award jade to three of his top killers. Over the past year, Tar has proven to be his most ruthlessly effective operative. Believing Tar will be an unstoppable asset in his war against the Copa cartel, Remi places a chain with one jade medallion over Tar’s neck, then slides two additional medallions onto it—the most jade he has ever awarded at once.

Tar accepts the jade, thanking Remi for the “second chance.” The moment the jade is on, his Green Bone abilities flood back. He instantly kills Remi by crushing his throat. In the ensuing fight, Tar kills one bodyguard but is wounded by the others. He escapes by leaping from a second-story window and surrendering to the police.

The police take Tar to the hospital and allow him to call Hilo—their first conversation in over a decade. Hilo, shocked to learn that Tar assassinated Remi, agrees to send Cory to represent Tar. Tar tells police he had been summoned to the restaurant to be killed because Remi suspected him of being a clan spy, claiming self-defense, and provides full details of the Snakeheads’ criminal operations. When Cory arrives, he tells Tar that Hilo and No Peak are working behind the scenes, “bribing cops and judges, [doing] whatever they possibly can to free [him]” (442). When Cory asks Tar if Anden put him up to killing Remy, Tar stays silent. When Cory asks why he would act in service of No Peak when they exiled him so many years before, Tar replies, “a death of consequence” (442).

Eighteen months earlier, Anden visited Tar in secret. Acting without Hilo’s knowledge, Anden explained the problem Remi posed and asked Tar to eliminate him for the good of the clan. Tar agreed.

In the present, the Snakeheads are dismantled by the authorities. Two months after his arrest, Tar is found hanged in his cell, an apparent death by suicide. His body is returned to Janloon for a private family funeral. Anden apologizes to Hilo, who says “I don’t blame you any more than I blame myself” (452), then leans heavily on Anden’s shoulder, admitting vulnerability. Hilo says he is grateful Anden is not a combatant, saying, “I need one of my brothers to live” (452).