Claire and Frank Randall arrive in Inverness, Scotland for a second honeymoon after years of wartime separation.

Claire touches the standing stones at Craigh na Dun and is transported back in time to 18th-century Scotland.

Scottish clansmen rescue Claire from Captain Randall's assault and take her captive to Castle Leoch.

Colum MacKenzie appoints Claire as the castle physician, giving her a role and purpose among the clan.

At the Gathering, Jamie pledges friendship and obedience to Colum without surrendering his Fraser family name.

Captain Randall beats and interrogates Claire at Fort William, exposing her vulnerability as an Englishwoman in Scotland.

Dougal proposes Claire marry Jamie so she becomes a Scotswoman beyond Captain Randall's legal authority.

Claire and Jamie marry in a chapel Claire recognizes as the same one where she wed Frank.

Jamie, a virgin, and Claire consummate their marriage after hours of intimate conversation on their wedding night.

While making her way toward Craigh na Dun alone, Claire slips into the loch and is captured by Randall's men.

Geillis confesses to witchcraft at the trial to save Claire from the mob, and Jamie rides in to rescue her.

Claire tells Jamie the truth about being a time traveler from the future, and Jamie believes her.

Standing at Craigh na Dun with the chance to return home, Claire cannot leave Jamie and turns back.

Sir Marcus MacRannoch's cattle stampede frees Jamie from Wentworth Prison and Randall is trampled to death.

Claire reveals to Jamie that she is carrying his child while the couple recover at the French abbey.

Claire Beauchamp arrives in Scotland with her historian husband Frank for a second honeymoon, only to be transported back in time after touching the ancient stones at Craigh na Dun. She is taken captive by Scottish clansmen and brought to Castle Leoch, where the laird Colum MacKenzie appoints her as castle physician. After Captain Randall beats her during an interrogation at Fort William, Claire agrees to marry the young Scotsman Jamie Fraser for her own protection. The two gradually fall in love, but Claire's attempt to escape back to the stones leads to her capture by Randall, and she must be rescued by Jamie. The story reaches its darkest point when Jamie is imprisoned at Wentworth Prison and sexually tortured by Randall before Claire orchestrates a daring rescue. The novel closes on a note of hope as Claire and Jamie recover at a French abbey and Claire reveals she is carrying his child.

The headline events that drive Claire's journey from Inverness to the French abbey.

Frank researches his Scottish ancestor Captain Jonathan Randall at the Inverness vicarage with Reverend Wakefield.

Reverend Wakefield's housekeeper Mrs. Graham reads Claire's palm and notes her marriage line is forked.

Claire finds a dated letter in Colum's library confirming she has traveled back in time.

Jamie voluntarily steps forward to take a public flogging intended for the young girl Laoghaire at the Hall.

Claire catches Jamie kissing Laoghaire in the stables the morning after he showed Claire his back scars.

Claire and Jamie work together to free a 12-year-old boy whose ear has been nailed to a pillory in Cranesmuir.

Dougal saves Claire from drunken clansmen at the Gathering but takes a forceful, unwanted kiss from her as payment.

Jamie and the MacKenzie men fight off an English raid, and Jamie gives Claire a dirk for her protection.

Jamie flogs Claire as punishment for endangering the MacKenzie clansmen by leaving her post and trying to reach the stones.

Jamie returns to their room at Castle Leoch and presents Claire with a wedding ring bought with his share of the rents.

Laoghaire tricks Claire into visiting Geillis, and both women are seized by villagers and accused of witchcraft.

Jamie and Jenny have a furious argument at Lallybroch before Jamie discovers she married Ian Murray and was never harmed by Randall.

Jamie physically coerces MacNab behind the pig shed into releasing his son Rabbie to work at Lallybroch.

Jenny goes into a complicated labor and Claire must turn the baby inside the womb to safely deliver daughter Margaret.

Claire confesses her time-traveling background to Father Anselm at the abbey, who counsels her to embrace her new marriage.

Before Claire's time-travel, Frank uncovers the history of his ancestor Captain Randall while a housekeeper's palm reading hints at Claire's divided future. Once in the past, Claire finds small confirmations of her displacement and begins to build relationships at Castle Leoch, witnessing both Jamie's chivalry toward Laoghaire and his scarred back. The rent-collecting journey forces Claire and Jamie closer through shared danger, including an English raid and Claire's punishment beating by Jamie for endangering the MacKenzie clansmen. Back at Castle Leoch, tensions with Laoghaire and Geillis culminate in a witchcraft arrest that Jamie must rush to undo. At Lallybroch, family complications arise as Jamie confronts his sister Jenny and a local father's cruelty, while Jenny's difficult childbirth brings Claire's own longing for motherhood to the surface. The pool closes with Claire finding spiritual and emotional counsel from Father Anselm at the abbey, who urges her to embrace the new life she has been given.

The significant moments and turning points that filled out Claire's life in 18th-century Scotland.

Frank and Claire secretly observe a Druid ceremony at Craigh na Dun the night before Claire's fateful return to the stones.

Claire encounters Captain Randall in the Scottish wilderness and is unnerved by his striking physical resemblance to her husband Frank.

Jamie shows Claire the deep scars covering his back, revealing the full brutality of Randall's floggings at Fort William.

Claire diagnoses Colum's painful condition as Toulouse-Lautrec syndrome and concludes the disease renders him unable to father children.

Claire realizes that Scottish Highland folklore frequently uses a span of two hundred years, giving her hope she can return through the stones.

Claire discovers that Dougal is secretly using the rent-collecting journey to raise money for the Jacobite cause.

Claire and the MacKenzie men camp near Loch Ness, where Claire witnesses what appears to be a monster rising from the water.

Jamie's friend Hugh Munro arrives with intelligence about the English deserter Horrocks, who can testify to clear Jamie's name.

Jamie confesses that Randall offered to cancel a flogging in exchange for sex, and that his father died of a heart attack watching Jamie's near-death beating.

Geillis hypnotizes Claire in an attempt to extract her true identity; later that evening Geillis's husband Arthur collapses and dies at a castle banquet.

At the witch trial, Claire spots a smallpox vaccination scar on Geillis's arm and realizes Geillis is also a traveler from a future era.

Dougal delivers Geillis's cryptic dying messages to Claire, which Claire interprets as confirmation that Geillis traveled from the future to serve the Jacobite cause.

Jamie confesses to Claire at Lallybroch that he did not marry her out of duty alone — he married her because he loves her.

Recovering at Sir Marcus's house after the prison rescue, Jamie tells Claire that Randall raped him repeatedly and that he feels his soul has been stolen.

Claire uses opium smoke and witchcraft to conjure Randall's spirit so Jamie can fight back; Jamie's fever breaks the following day.

Claire's journey begins with a fateful night at Craigh na Dun where she and Frank observe a Druid ritual, setting up her accidental displacement into the past where she encounters the alarming reality of Captain Randall. At Castle Leoch, a series of revelations reshape her understanding of the people around her — from Jamie's scarred past to Colum's secret infirmity and the hidden Jacobite loyalties driving Dougal's rent tours. The middle section of the story turns on dangerous encounters near Loch Ness and the slow accumulation of threats from Randall, culminating in the witch trial where Claire glimpses the shocking truth about Geillis Duncan's origins. At Lallybroch, emotional revelations deepen Claire and Jamie's bond, including Jamie's confession of love and Jenny's disclosure about Randall's assault that finally releases the siblings from their shared guilt. The darkest turning point arrives when Jamie, rescued from Wentworth Prison, tells Claire what Randall did to him and declares he can no longer be her husband. Claire's desperate act of summoning Randall's spirit breaks the hold the trauma has over Jamie and marks the beginning of his recovery.

The discoveries, confessions, and decisions that shifted the course of Claire and Jamie's story.