Maisie opens her first solo detective office, and caretaker Billy Beale recognizes her as the wartime nurse who saved his leg.

Wealthy publisher Christopher Davenham hires Maisie to investigate his wife Celia, whom he suspects of having an extramarital affair.

Maisie follows Celia Davenham by train to a cemetery in Kent, where Celia visits a grave marked only as 'Vincent.'

A cemetery groundskeeper tells Maisie that Vincent and several other men all died after living at a nearby veteran farm called the Retreat.

Maisie meets Celia Davenham at a tea shop and learns that Vincent was her childhood love who retreated from society after severe wartime injuries.

Lady Rowan Compton reveals that her son James plans to join the Retreat, raising the personal stakes of Maisie's investigation.

Maisie's widowed father Frankie arranges for her to enter domestic service at the Compton household after he can no longer afford her schooling.

Lady Rowan discovers Maisie teaching herself Latin in the household library and offers her private tutoring sessions with mentor Maurice Blanche.

After Enid dies in a munitions factory explosion, Maisie lies about her age and volunteers as a wartime nurse to honor her friend.

While stationed in France, Maisie encounters surgeon Simon Lynch again and a romance develops between them during their shared wartime leaves.

Simon proposes to Maisie during their leave in England, but she defers her answer, haunted by a sense of impending doom.

Billy infiltrates the Retreat while Maisie and Maurice analyze death certificates, finding all suspiciously consistent and signed by a relative of Jenkins.

Billy contacts Maisie through the hidden telephone line to report that a man who wanted to leave the Retreat has gone missing.

Maisie sings a wartime nurse's song to break Jenkins's hold on the assembled men, then disarms him as the police arrive.

Maisie visits Simon Lynch at the hospital where he now lives with severe disabilities and apologizes for not coming sooner.

Maisie Dobbs opens her first independent detective agency in 1929 London and quickly takes on a case for a jealous husband named Christopher Davenham. Following his wife Celia, Maisie discovers that Celia is not having an affair but is grieving a dead veteran named Vincent, whose suspicious death points to a farm for wounded soldiers called the Retreat. The stakes rise when Maisie's patron Lady Rowan Compton reveals that her son James plans to join the very same farm. The story steps back to show Maisie's past: her rise from servant girl to Cambridge-educated nurse, her wartime romance with surgeon Simon Lynch, and the tragedy that defined her. Armed with this history, Maisie and her assistant Billy Beale expose the Retreat's founder Jenkins as a killer executing those who try to leave. Maisie finally confronts the wounds she has long suppressed by visiting Simon Lynch in the hospital where he now lives.

The Retreat case and the secrets Maisie carries.

A newspaper seller assumes Maisie is upper-class based on her appearance and is startled when she responds in a working-class accent.

Maisie follows Celia a second time and tends a nearby cemetery plot as cover, deepening her commitment to uncovering the truth.

Billy installs a telephone line to answer Maisie's calls from downstairs and shares what he remembers about Vincent Weathershaw's wartime service.

Celia tells Maisie that Vincent helped name the Retreat as a deliberate withdrawal from a society the veterans considered their enemy.

Maurice takes Lady Rowan to London's impoverished East End, inspiring her to broaden her social reform work beyond women's suffrage.

Stung by Enid's resentment and her father's anxieties about her future, Maisie tells Maurice she wants to abandon her studies entirely.

Maurice arranges for Maisie to transfer to a less demanding role at Chelstone Manor, allowing her to continue preparing for Cambridge.

Frankie deliberately sickens Lady Rowan's horses with chalk to fool government officials and spare the animals from wartime conscription.

The Comptons' household servants host a farewell dinner for Maisie and present her with the leather document case she carries throughout her career.

Maisie arrives at Cambridge and befriends her garrulous upper-class roommate Priscilla Evernden, whose lively personality draws Maisie out of her shell.

Maisie spots Enid bidding an emotional farewell to James Compton at a London train station, the last time the two women see each other.

Maisie's first wounded soldier dies in her hands at the front-line hospital before she can save him, confronting her with the true cost of war.

Maisie visits the Retreat undercover and meets Jenkins, finding herself unable to decide whether he is a compassionate leader or a dangerous manipulator.

Lord Julian Compton reveals that Jenkins's true rank was lieutenant and that he was discharged to psychiatric care after soldiers under him deserted.

After the Retreat case is solved, Billy becomes Maisie's full-time assistant and summons her for a new case from Scotland Yard.

This pool follows the secondary threads that give the main investigation its texture and emotional depth. From Maisie's working-class roots—visible in her East End accent and her bond with the servants who raised her—to the wartime details that shaped her character, these events show how Maisie became the detective she is. Key figures like Priscilla, Enid, and Billy all play supporting roles in steering Maisie toward her vocation and toward the Retreat. At the Retreat itself, Maisie gathers crucial intelligence about Jenkins and the veterans, uncertain whether he is a healer or a predator. Lord Julian's discovery of Jenkins's true military history provides the final key to understanding his motives. The pool closes as the case resolves and Maisie launches into her next challenge with Billy as her official partner.

The people and details behind the main investigation.

Maisie deduces that Celia is grieving a dead man rather than having an affair, noting Vincent's grave is too recent to be a wartime death.

Cemetery groundskeeper Tom Smith reveals his own son died by suicide after surviving the war, deepening Maisie's suspicion that the Retreat deaths are connected.

Maisie tells Christopher Davenham that his wife needs emotional understanding rather than surveillance, redirecting the case toward Celia's healing.

Frankie visits the Comptons' kitchen staff and asks them to hire Maisie as a servant, setting the entire course of her life in motion.

Enid tells Maisie the class system offers no middle ground and that people in their position must make a great leap to rise at all.

James Compton is sent to Canada to end his forbidden romance with Enid, and an embittered Enid accuses Maisie of neglecting her duties.

Maurice introduces Maisie to the scholar Khan, whose meditation practices she will later draw on to endure the hardships of wartime nursing.

Maisie sits the grueling daylong Cambridge entrance examinations with Maurice's encouragement and wins a place at Girton College.

Priscilla persuades Maisie to attend a farewell party for Simon Lynch, where Maisie meets the young surgeon for the first time.

Maisie and Enid reconcile in a train station tea shop before Maisie learns that Enid has been killed in a factory explosion hours later.

Maisie and Simon Lynch save Billy Beale's leg in the field hospital, and shortly afterward their tent is shelled, gravely wounding Simon.

Maurice gives Maisie a copy of All Quiet on the Western Front and warns her to consider what masks conceal about a person's true nature.

Maisie arrives at the Retreat's quarry to find the wounded veterans assembled before a makeshift gallows with Billy standing in a noose.

Maisie places her hand over Jenkins's heart and tells him the war is over, causing him to dissolve into tears and relinquish control.

Maisie explains that Jenkins murdered Vincent Weathershaw after Vincent recognized him as the officer who had executed military deserters during the war.

This pool captures the pivotal moments of insight and decision that redirect both Maisie's investigation and her personal life. From the early deductions that transform a domestic suspicion into a murder inquiry, to the critical choices of Maisie's youth, these events mark the crossroads where the story changes direction. The flashback portion reveals how class, friendship, and wartime sacrifice shaped Maisie's character, culminating in the shelling that gravely wounded Simon Lynch and haunted her for over a decade. In the present, Maisie must unravel Jenkins's true psychology and confront him face to face before she can face her own past. The pool ends with Maisie explaining the case's dark truth to Billy and Maurice, finally freeing herself from the grief she has carried since the war.