That same morning, Reginald von Beaverpelt is cornered by his wife Edith as he tries to leave for work. Drawing on language lifted from a magazine advice column, Edith complains that he is emotionally unavailable, then demands tearfully to know whether he is going to see some unnamed female. Reginald loses patience entirely, shouts that he has real business to attend to, and storms out. Edith collapses dramatically in the living room.

Stasia and Esme have been eavesdropping on the stairs the whole time and recognize their mother’s script from the magazine. Esme sides with their mother; Stasia privately sympathizes with their father. Once Edith retreats to her bedroom to recover, the sisters slip out of the mansion to hear gossip about Otto’s murder. They choose Joe’s Mug, a coffee shop well beneath their usual social standard, because it is the obvious center of town chatter. Unfamiliar with the informal setup, Stasia navigates the counter and orders ciders and blueberry muffins. As she takes in the crowd, she hears talk of murder and decides they came to exactly the right place.

Vera heads to the von Beaverpelt Sawmill to locate Howard Chitters. She asks for von Beaverpelt, but his secretary, Brenda, refuses Vera entry without an appointment. Vera fabricates a story that the police may need to halt the waterwheel that powers the mill and the town to drag the pond for evidence. An alarmed Brenda immediately fetches her boss.

Reginald von Beaverpelt receives Vera in a lavishly appointed office and tries to appear unconcerned. When Vera raises his known arguments with Otto, he bristles. When she asks about stopping the waterwheel, he insists Chief Meade is in charge and would never allow it. Vera pointedly notes how much von Beaverpelt has donated to Meade’s campaigns. When she asks for his alibi, he snaps that he was home with his wife.

As Vera leaves, Howard sees her from his office and pulls her aside. He overheard the conversation and is terrified about a potential closure; he has a large family and cannot absorb lost wages. He hints vaguely that the mill has been overspending, but Brenda reappears and escorts Vera out before he can say more.

Back at Joe’s Mug, the von Beaverpelt sisters watch through the window as Sun Li passes by. The coffee shop falls silent, then erupts in gossip. Patrons repeat rumors that Sun Li is secretive, moved from far away without family connections, and may have killed another creature before fleeing his home country. The rumor takes on fresh significance given the murder. A few more moderate voices push back, but the general mood is suspicious. The sisters, observing it all, decide the outing has been worthwhile.

Shortly after Vera leaves the sawmill, von Beaverpelt asks Brenda to bring him coffee. He drinks it and soon feels ill—his vision blurs, and he suspects something is wrong with the coffee. He manages to call for Brenda before losing consciousness and crashing to the floor. Two squirrel paramedics arrive and carry von Beaverpelt to the hospital, where they discover that the town doctor is out on a second simultaneous emergency, which is unheard of in Shady Hollow. The paramedics learn that Orville is at the Bamboo Patch.

They find Orville questioning Sun Li about the wine bottle. On hearing of the crisis, Sun Li grabs a medical bag, flips his restaurant sign to closed, and leads the way to the hospital. Once inside, he takes command, quickly identifies poisoning as the cause, and directs the squirrels in a procedure to dilute the poison. Von Beaverpelt is stabilized and moved to a recovery room. Orville is unsettled: If Sun Li played any part in Otto’s death, why would he save von Beaverpelt? The creatures are amazed, recognizing that Sun Li must be a doctor. Before departing, Sun Li offers to speak to Orville further at the restaurant.

The narrative follows Sun Li’s private thoughts. He was once a well-regarded surgeon in his home country until a patient—the prime minister’s son—died during a routine operation. Though the outcome was not his fault, Sun Li lost his medical license. After years in a mountain monastery, he emigrated and opened the Bamboo Patch, reinventing himself as a cook. Now that identity is compromised. He returns to his kitchen and begins his prep work, sensing that the day ahead will be unusually demanding.

Before leaving the sawmill that evening, Brenda sends word to Edith von Beaverpelt about her husband’s collapse and alerts the police station to the suspicious circumstances. Later, Orville arrives to investigate. Howard lets him in, and Orville collects samples of the coffee and sugar. Chitters confirms that Brenda prepared the coffee but that the kitchenette is accessible to anyone. Orville suspects the two poisonings are linked and considers consulting Dr. Broadhead.

Vera files her next article at the Herald, then heads out of town at dusk to find Professor Heidegger, a famously learned and pompous owl who lives high in a large elm. Heidegger descends silently and deduces immediately that she is there about the murder. He has a solid alibi—he was flying near Green Mountain that evening, confirmed by a colleague—but he does offer useful information: At dusk on the day of the murder, he spotted what he now recognizes as the green wine bottle near the pond. Moments later saw a medium-sized creature moving furtively away from that spot, though foliage prevented a clear identification. After delivering this, Heidegger takes flight and disappears.

Vera tracks down Chief Theodore “Teddy” Meade at his riverside home. He answers the door reluctantly and admits, under Vera’s prodding, that he has no idea how to investigate a murder—Shady Hollow has always been too quiet to require it. He reveals that Orville is working from a police procedural manual. Vera tells him what Heidegger saw and patiently explains how alibis work. Meade grows cautiously hopeful and agrees to go into the station the next morning to assist Orville.

In the course of the conversation, Meade casually mentions the poisoning attempt on von Beaverpelt—news Vera has not yet heard. She is stunned. The possibility that the town is dealing with a serial poisoner alarms her, as does the revelation that Sun Li has apparent medical expertise.

After an anxious night, Vera stops at the general store first thing in the morning and adds her name to the waiting list for a door lock—a measure the previously unlocked town has never needed before. She then visits Otto Sumpf’s home at the pond’s edge. The dwelling is damp and sparsely furnished, reflecting a reclusive life. She finds his cupboard stocked with preserves, dried insects, and liquor—including a bottle of Sun Li’s plum wine, the same type found at the crime scene. She takes it. In the bedroom, she discovers several small black journals on the bedside table. Otto’s entries are cramped, written in multiple languages, and often cryptic—ranging from mundane reminders to sardonic observations about his neighbors, including a veiled jab at Reginald von Beaverpelt. Unable to read them quickly, Vera takes all the journals, reasoning that the older volumes may also prove relevant.

Back at the Herald, Vera finds the office in chaos: BW is rushing out a special edition on the town’s “crime wave.” She argues that blanket coverage will cause panic and taint witness memories before she can interview them, but BW refuses to delay. The special edition will publish the next morning, just before Otto’s funeral. Vera has no choice but to move fast.

On the street, she encounters Howard, who confirms that von Beaverpelt’s coffee was poisoned. Brenda routinely prepared the coffee service in the executive office, but he is sure that she didn’t do it and that someone must have tampered with the supplies.

Vera goes to the Bamboo Patch, where Sun Li confirms his past as a surgeon without elaborating. He leads her to a hallway cabinet in his kitchen and shows her a powder called heartstill, derived from a rare mountain plant. In small amounts, it is a sedative; in larger doses, it stops the heart. He believes heartstill was used on both Otto and von Beaverpelt because one of his two boxes of the substance is missing. He hadn’t checked the supply until hearing about the victims’ symptoms, so it could have been taken by anyone who worked in his kitchen since the restaurant opened. He provides Vera with a list of former employees, including Ruby Ewing and several of the Chitters children. He stresses that the missing box contains enough poison to kill many more creatures and that the police must find it immediately. Vera leaves, acutely aware that time is running out.