Ayoola phones Korede after stabbing a man named Femi to death, her third killing.

Korede meticulously cleans the crime scene and the sisters dump Femi's body into a Lagos lagoon.

Korede writes Femi's name in her notebook, acknowledging that Ayoola is officially a serial killer.

Korede confesses Ayoola's murders to comatose patient Muhtar Yautai, using him as her only confessor.

Ayoola visits Korede's hospital and meets Dr. Tade Otumu, who becomes immediately infatuated with her.

Police officers arrive at the sisters' home to question Ayoola about Femi's disappearance.

Ayoola travels to Dubai with her married sponsor Gboyega, who dies there from an apparent drug overdose.

Korede adds Gboyega's name to her notebook, suspecting Ayoola killed him even without using her knife.

Muhtar wakes from his coma, having heard and understood everything Korede confessed to him.

Tade shows Korede an engagement ring and reveals his plan to propose marriage to Ayoola.

Muhtar tells Korede he will keep her secret and urges her to save Tade's life.

Korede breaks into Tade's office, destroys his engagement ring, and stages a robbery to delay the proposal.

Ayoola attempts to stab Tade; he fights back, and she ends up with the knife lodged in her belly.

Ayoola wakes in hospital and tells police that Tade stabbed her after she refused his marriage proposal.

Tade is arrested, his medical license is revoked, and he is sent to prison for assaulting Ayoola.

The novel opens with nurse Korede arriving to clean up after her beautiful sister Ayoola has stabbed a man named Femi — her third victim — and the sisters dump his body into a Lagos lagoon. With no friends to confide in, Korede begins unburdening herself to Muhtar, a comatose patient at her hospital, while trying and failing to keep Ayoola away from the doctor she loves, Tade. The situation escalates when Ayoola travels to Dubai with a married sponsor named Gboyega, who dies under suspicious circumstances, and Korede adds his name to the grim notebook she keeps of her sister's victims. Muhtar wakes from his coma having heard everything, and Korede realizes she must act when Tade reveals he plans to propose to Ayoola. Korede destroys the engagement ring and issues warnings, but Ayoola attacks Tade anyway — only for Tade to wound her in self-defense — and when Ayoola recovers, she calmly accuses him of the assault. Tade is arrested, his medical license revoked, and Korede commits fully to her sister, burning the only contact she has to the outside world and going downstairs to smile at Ayoola's next admirer.

The headline story of Ayoola's murders and their devastating consequences.

Korede attempts to flirt clumsily with Dr. Tade in the hospital corridor.

Femi's disappearance trends on Instagram and Ayoola posts their photo together, publicly performing grief.

A traffic officer aggressively demands a bribe from Korede, who pays rather than risk drawing attention to herself.

Korede tries to persuade Ayoola to surrender their father's knife, but Ayoola flatly refuses.

Tade sends orchids then roses to Ayoola, and their delighted mother celebrates his courtship as a triumph.

Unable to sleep, Korede tears petals from Tade's roses and leaves them strewn across the floor.

Their father collapses through a glass coffee table and dies while in the middle of brutalizing the two sisters.

At their father's commemoration, both sisters wear purple — a color he despised — and Tade arrives uninvited.

Police return Korede's forensically examined car dirty to her workplace and demand another bribe in front of Chichi.

Senior doctor Dr. Akigbe formally promotes Korede to head nurse.

Korede learns that Ayoola killed her first victim, a boy named Somto, when she was only seventeen years old.

Femi's sister Peju confronts Korede outside the family home, sobbing and demanding answers about her missing brother.

Muhtar asks Korede to stay and watch as he firmly refuses his son permission to change fiancées.

Muhtar's wife weeps in the corridor after learning he intends to divorce her and sever himself from her schemes.

Muhtar is discharged from the hospital and offers Korede his phone number, hoping to remain in contact.

While the murders form the spine of the novel, the sisters' daily world is equally vivid — from Korede's awkward attempts to attract Tade at work to the corrupt traffic officer who extracts a bribe from her as she tries to stay invisible. Ayoola's public grief over Femi on Instagram and her refusal to surrender their father's knife reveal how little she fears consequences, while Tade's escalating courtship — flowers, bracelets, and adoring visits — draws him deeper into Ayoola's orbit. The sudden remembered death of their abusive father, who collapsed through a glass table while brutalizing the girls, explains much of what drives both sisters, and his commemorative service forces the family to keep up wealthy appearances. Korede earns a promotion to head nurse through sheer competence, but no professional achievement dims the shadow her sister casts over her life. As the crisis deepens, she learns Ayoola has been killing since she was seventeen, watches Femi's grieving sister break down outside their home, and sees Muhtar begin the painful process of cutting his own dysfunctional family loose — a freedom Korede finds she cannot imitate.

The relationships, rituals, and pressures shaping life around the sisters' secret.

Ayoola admits she cannot remember Femi's last name and insists his death was entirely not her fault.

Korede questions whether Ayoola is capable of feeling anything and wonders if the knife itself is driving the killings.

A neighbor's Snapchat post reveals that two women were seen leaving Femi's apartment the night he was killed.

Korede coaches Ayoola on what to tell the police, and Ayoola delivers a flawless performance under questioning.

Korede searches Facebook and discovers Gboyega is a married father of three, and checks his wife's Instagram.

A heartbroken Tade tells Korede that Ayoola would need less male attention if Korede were more supportive of her.

Korede reads Femi's poems online and leaves an anonymous message urging someone to publish his writing.

Muhtar confirms to Korede that he was aware of her voice throughout his coma and remembers her confessions.

Korede briefly contemplates eliminating Muhtar to protect Ayoola's secret and is disturbed by the murderous impulse.

Korede dreams of a living Femi who warns her that Ayoola will never stop killing.

Korede tells Tade that Ayoola will physically hurt him, but he dismisses the warning as jealousy and cruelty.

Korede threatens Tade with a false assault accusation if he tells police the truth about Ayoola's attack.

Ayoola reveals she told Tade about Korede's warning and demands Korede choose between her and Tade once and for all.

Korede recalls the moment their father agreed to hand Ayoola over to his criminal partner as payment for a deal.

Korede resolves that she and Ayoola will always have each other and that no one else matters.

Beneath the surface of the plot runs a current of quieter, more devastating shifts — Ayoola's breezy inability to remember her victim's last name, Korede's dawning fear that her sister may be incapable of feeling, and the terrifying Snapchat post that tells Korede someone saw them at Femi's apartment. Each revelation forces Korede deeper into complicity: she coaches Ayoola for police, researches Gboyega online and says nothing, and anonymously mourns Femi through his own poetry. When Muhtar wakes and confirms he remembers every word, Korede briefly contemplates eliminating him — a thought that horrifies and illuminates her — and a dream of living Femi warns her what she already knows. Her attempts to warn Tade fail, and after Ayoola's attack she threatens Tade into silence and discovers that Ayoola had already poisoned him against her. A buried memory surfaces about their father agreeing to trade Ayoola to a criminal partner like a commodity, and finally Korede reaches the end of her long internal struggle, resolving that her sister is all she has and all that matters.

The hidden moments of discovery, dark impulse, and irreversible choice that define the novel.