Once again, Morrigan uses what she calls her reach, the magical extension of her hands, to smuggle Cadence through the waterfall gate that surrounds the Silver District. As a mesmerist, Cadence can blend into the background, and Aunt Margot keeps forgetting that she is there. Cadence notes several dragonriders in attendance at Dario’s memorial. The Rinaldi family includes Dario’s parents, his tight-lipped brother, Cosimo, and his younger sister, Vesta, who uses a mechanical eight-legged chair. The Vulture enters, and Morrigan notes the undercurrent of hostility directed toward him. He is thin, shabby, and looks old, and Morrigan wonders why he is staring at her. When she stares back, his nose begins to bleed.

Morrigan escapes to the library. Modestine enters a bit later, clearly upset, and Morrigan attempts to console her. Modestine claims that Margot only cares about the way things look, “never the way they really are. Never the way they feel” (252). Modestine is also worried about Gigi, who hasn’t been seen since the wedding. When Modestine mentions her hope that the Devereaux will be demoted at the next Silver Assembly, Morrigan seizes the opportunity to ask her about it. Modestine explains that the Assembly is held once an Age and is the council where the families of the Silver District conduct their business.

Margot interrupts Morrigan and Modestine’s discussion. She asks Morrigan to perform a bit of magic for their guests, suggesting “[s]omething gentle and pretty. Something elegant” (257). Morrigan is surprised that the Darlings don’t seem to mind that she is a Wundersmith. She creates a Weaving (a Wundrous Art that involves creating or moving objects) to help Modestine feel better.

Back at the Deucalion, Cadence complains that Darling House is enormous and that she couldn’t find the photographs. When she asks whether Morrigan will be able to return, Morrigan recalls Aunt Margot telling her to consider Darling House her home.

Jupiter is angry that Morrigan went to the Silver District against his wishes. He forbids her to leave the Deucalion for anything but school, insisting that teenagers are still children and that it is his job to make the rules for her. Morrigan feels like he is a stranger, “[t]his unfair, upside-down version of Jupiter North she’d never met before and didn’t care to know” (266). Morrigan is still angry that Jupiter kept the truth of her mother’s family from her, but Jupiter defends his wish to keep Morrigan away from the Silver District, saying that Meredith must have had a reason to leave it. Morrigan becomes even angrier when Jupiter says that he is doing this for her own good, wondering, “When did she get to decide what her own good was?” (269). The octopus chair tips Jupiter out the doorway, and the room helps her pack a suitcase. The chair reminds her to bring her stuffed rabbit, Emmett.

The Darlings welcome Morrigan and let her sleep in her mother’s bedroom, which is decorated with lace and bunnies. Aunt Modestine brings Morrigan a new wardrobe for all her new social activities. Morrigan spends her days moving from one entertainment to another, and she weaves little bits of magic to amuse others. She finds it curious that everyone in the Silver District still believes that Mr. Stirling, the wedding planner, murdered Dario, and that they are leaving everything up to the Silk, the nickname for the Silver District Watch (as opposed to the Stink, the Nevermoor City Police Force). Meanwhile, Morrigan eagerly learns more about her mother, thinking, “Slowly, slowly, Meredith Darling was becoming three-dimensional—a living, breathing person, not just a painting in the Hall of Dead Crows” (282), the gallery of family portraits in the Crow home in the Wintersea Republic. Her aunts report that Lady Darling is poorly.

Rook, the schoolmistress of the School of Wundrous Arts, writes a letter ordering Morrigan to return to school. However, the Darlings want Morrigan to participate in the festive season, a celebration that pays tribute to the Silver District’s patron Divinity, the Manyhands.

The following day, the first of the holiday season, a tribute made of flowers is launched on the Splendid Canal. Squall joins in the parade and chides Morrigan for letting her abilities grow stagnant. When she sees Louis and Lottie St. James coming toward her, Morrigan agrees to go with Squall.

Squall has Morrigan practice summoning, reminding her that Wunder can read intention. Squall also reveals that the Manyhands is the Divinity in charge of the Wundrous Art of Weaving. He says that the Silver District’s tribute is “a sanitized, flower-strewn, beauty-pageant version of a profound, unfathomable horror” and that the Guiltghast is a far closer representation (297). He mentions that the Silver District was always very proud of Wundersmiths and liked to have them make pet projects, like the waterfall that guards the entrance and keeps uninvited persons out.

Once back in her bedroom, Morrigan finds the words “I hate Lady Horrible” carved into one of the bedposts (301). Seeing these words feels like her mother is reaching out to her.

Louis and Lottie break into the Darling House and wake Morrigan up to invite her to go lintel-hopping. This involves swinging through portals via lintels in different houses. Eventually, the portals lead the trio outside the boundaries of the Silver District.

As they travel, the twins insist that they do not support their father’s actions against Morrigan and reveal that they have been threatened with being sent away to boarding school if they talk to her. They mention the family plaque on the front door of every house, which lists the adult members of the household. The number of names on the plaque represents the family’s status and influence. Finally, they explain that only youngsters can use the lintels; once a person has their debut and is officially considered an adult, they forget about the chain. Morrigan realizes that a Wundersmith created the lintel chain. The twins explain that one of the lintels disappeared when the Vulture bought Beauregard House and that others in the Silver District look down on him because he bought his way into one of the Great Houses rather than being born into it.

The trio’s lintel hopping ultimately brings them to a bar in Eldritch Moorings. As soon as they arrive, one of the twins’ friends, Barty, frantically says that he just saw something in the water and that it is now returning. Morrigan realizes that it is the Guiltghast, and when the monster tries to eat Barty, Morrigan creates a net made of Wunder to catch him. Morrigan thinks that the monster is “beautiful. Terrifying, but beautiful” (315). She also thinks it is hungry.

When Morrigan returns to Darling House, just before dawn, she sees Lady Darling in a small study that also holds a typewriter and several books. Pages and photographs are strewn all over the floor. After Aunt Margot takes Lady Darling away, returning her to bed, Morrigan sneaks inside and finds the photographs from the wedding.

When Morrigan returns to school, her classmates tease her about how long she has been gone. Morrigan ignores this, giving Cadence the negatives of the wedding photographs. During a lecture, their professor, Conall O’Leary, who is a clairvoyant, tells the class about the Guiltghast. He thinks the monster is dangerous because, when it takes someone’s guilt away, that person no longer feels remorse for their crimes.

After class is over, Morrigan asks Conall if it would be possible for him to communicate with Morrigan’s mother. She explains that Meredith died giving birth to Morrigan and that Morrigan was considered cursed. Conall explains that he no longer uses his skill because he has never been able to get in touch with his deceased husband.

Cadence reviews the wedding photographs and produces a list of seven suspects who were not photographed at the cake cutting. The suspects include Lord and Lady Deveraux, Gigi, the Vulture, Margot Darling, Tobias Darling, Sunny Ghoshal (the best man), and Lady Mallory Darling, Morrigan’s grandmother. The classmates of Unit 919 discuss alibis and motives. Anah has begun reading the Silverborn Saga novels and refers to several of them. They also discuss whom Cosimo Rinaldi might pick to ride the family’s dragon. Cadence asks everyone to contribute to the investigation.

The class meets at the Gathering Place (where meetings about managing the Wundersmiths’ creations take place) to learn about the debate over what to do with the Guiltghast. The committee has not been able to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. One option is simply to kill it. However, Lam notes that the clocksmiths predict that Basking is coming and explains that the turn of an Age attracts a great deal of undead; these Unresting could be taken to feed the Guiltghast when Basking begins rather than at the next Hallowmas. One of the Elders (leaders of the Wundrous Society) notes that while the adults spent weeks quarreling over poor options, a near-14-year-old came up with a helpful solution in a few minutes.