Frida recalls that after escaping the cult, she and Gabriel boarded a train to New York City. Once there, they were stunned and overwhelmed that they had successfully escaped.

In the present timeline, Frida wakes to loud knocking. The owner of the motel wants her to leave. She finds out that the local paper has just published a photo of her and Gabriel along with the information that they have become persons of interest in Sabrina’s murder. She calls a car back to the hotel. When it arrives, Detective Harris is inside and asks to speak with her at the station. Although it is foolish to do so without a lawyer, she agrees. She feels she has no choice.

The novel flashes back to the past, after Frida and Gabriel’s escape from the cult. While looking for job advertisements in the paper, Frida stumbles across an article about the fire. She is stunned to find out that it was not Émile who died in the blaze, but Edwina. Although Edwina was complicit in her sexual assault and Gabriel points that out angrily, Frida still feels horrified. Deep down, she knows that although she hates Edwina, Frida would have done the same thing in her place. That was how Émile’s control tactics worked: The women did anything he asked.

Back in the present timeline, Frida arrives at the police station. Detective Harris asks about Sabrina’s phone, and Frida answers truthfully that she found it in the desert. He then asks her about the nature of Gabriel’s relationship with Sabrina. This confuses Frida because she thinks Gabriel and Sabrina did not have a relationship. The detective then shows her a screenshot of one of the phone’s notes: Sabrina had Gabriel’s date of birth and contact information. Now, Frida is scared and wonders what Gabriel is keeping from her. The detective explains that she is not a suspect, but he says Gabriel is. Frida rises and says that she’d like to leave. Detective Harris threatens to get a warrant to search their room and to do his best to re-open the investigation into Annie’s death.

Frida recalls that she introduced Gabriel and Annie. While attending school at Columbia, she and Annie meet at a film night. They strike up an easy friendship, and Frida sets Annie up with Gabriel after Annie complains that all of the men she meets are too similar. Gabriel and Annie fall instantly in love and are engaged six months later. At this time, Frida also experiments with dating. She wants to move beyond the trauma of her assault and finds that she can do so through casual relationships with clear boundaries. She enjoys most of the men she dates and finds that they make her feel good, but she is happy to be able to leave them as soon as she wants to. School is going well, and she is waitressing to earn money.

Gabriel began working in construction but soon finds something better: He falls in love with learning and became fascinated by the Roman Empire. He becomes an assistant to a prominent scholar of Roman history, and between the job and Annie, he seems content. He, Annie, and Frida take a trip to the ocean. Frida loves swimming in the surf, but at one point, she feels something wrap around her ankle. She thinks of Émile’s bracelets and begins to panic but discovers it is just seaweed.

In the present timeline, Frida returns to their hotel room to find Gabriel sitting at his computer. He, too, has seen that he is now a person of interest in Sabrina’s murder. Frida tells him that they need to talk, and initially, he is evasive. Then, she walks over to his backpack and grabs Sabrina’s hair clip. She asks why he has it. He agrees to explain but insists that they speak outside.

During the early months after they left the cult, Frida and Gabriel live in a storage unit. Initially, everything is fine, but Gabriel becomes mentally distressed when Émile is arrested. Émile is caught for tax evasion and sentenced to 50 years in prison. Now that Gabriel knows there is nothing to go back to—the cult has disbanded—something in him snaps. For six months, he barely gets out of bed, and Frida supports them both with her income.

Months later, after Gabriel has met Annie and is happier, Frida feels a new tension arise between them. She understands they are each on their own journey and that life is hard for each of them in their own way. During a night around a campfire, both Gabriel and Frida become nervous, recalling the fire that killed Edwina. When Gabriel steps away, Annie asks Frida questions about their first few months after leaving the cult. Frida thinks back: They lived in a storage unit and then in shelters; they struggled to get social security cards and IDs; they were traumatized; Gabriel stopped working. However, she cannot manage to say any of this. Eventually, Annie gives up.

Gabriel leads Frida out into the desert and begins to tell his story. He admits that he and Sabrina were having a clandestine affair that began on the first day of their visit.