The Change

Jo and Nessa report Amber’s disappearance, but the Chief of Police, John Rocca, is dismissive and suggests that the troubled Welshes simply left town. Outside, Nessa confronts Franklin Rees for siding with Rocca. Franklin quietly explains that while Rocca may be right about the Welshes, he will investigate their disappearance privately. He also tells Nessa that he lacks the evidence to launch an expensive search for bodies near Danskammer Beach based on her “hunch.” Nessa doesn’t tell him about the third ghost or the true nature of her visions, which frustrates Jo.

Overwhelmed by the voices of the dead, Nessa drives through town late at night. She goes to the county morgue and is met by the ghost of the unidentified girl from the beach, whom she brings back to her house. After drawing the girl’s portrait, Nessa calls Franklin and asks him to come over.

She shows him her sketches of all three dead girls and explains the full truth of her “gift”: that she can see ghosts in real time. Franklin believes her, recounting a childhood experience in which a similarly gifted woman insisted she could see a dead girl in the nearby canal; a body matching the woman’s description was found there later that day. He agrees to post the first girl’s portrait to a missing persons database and promises to search for the other bodies.

Two weeks later, the police investigation has stalled, and a discouraged Nessa is staying at Harriett’s house to avoid the ghost sitting on her couch. Meanwhile, Harriett and Jo attend a Memorial Day party at the Culling Pointe home of Jackson Dunn, a prominently misogynistic CEO who once sexually assaulted Harriett years ago. The women are escorted by Harriett’s ex-husband, Chase.

At the party, they meet Leonard Shaw (the drone pilot and self-professed whale-watcher), as well as his much younger partner, Claude Marchand, who works as an event planner for Culling Pointe. While the men gather on a private roof deck—a long-held tradition—Harriett opens her hands and tosses seeds into the air, letting the ocean breeze carry them inland.

Later, Jo and Harriett walk along the beach to an adjacent property, where they discover Jo’s missing gym client, Rosamund Harding, sitting alone on her deck. Rosamund picks up an apple and carves a word into its skin with a paring knife, then tosses the apple to them. It reads “FAITH.” As Rosamund hurries inside, her husband’s bodyguard, Chertov, confronts Jo and Harriett with a gun, but Claude intervenes. Claude and Leonard then escort the women to the party’s roof deck, where they meet Rosamund’s abusive husband, Spencer Harding. Harriett and Jo confront Spencer about his wife’s well-being, implying they know he is a threat.

This chapter flashes back to Claude Marchand’s past. The daughter of a French immigrant who built a wealthy hedge fund, Claude grew up organizing lavish parties that helped to recruit investors for her father’s business. Her father refused to let her join the fund, explaining that men only trust other men with their money, and he separately suggested that she marry a prestigious man to boost her own family’s fame and position.

After Claude became engaged to such a man, her father’s business was exposed as a Ponzi scheme. He died by suicide, leaving her penniless and abandoned by her fiancé. She rebuilt her life by becoming a consultant for the newly rich, teaching them the rules of high society. She also formed a partnership with Leonard Shaw, who helped her to ruin the family of her former fiancé. The experience left Claude determined to maintain her own power and security.

After the party, Spencer Harding sends Harriett a bouquet of white lilies, which she interprets as a threat because the delivery confirms that he knows where she lives. She and Nessa discuss the men they met at Culling Pointe, identifying Leonard Shaw as a major philanthropist and Claude as the daughter of the infamous con man Antoine Marchand.

Franklin calls with news that a woman named Laverne Green has claimed that the unidentified girl is her missing daughter, Venus. The next day, Laverne visits Nessa’s house. Nessa deduces that Laverne is lying about being the girl’s mother, as the ghost, sitting beside Laverne on the couch, shows no recognition of the woman. Nessa saves Laverne’s coffee cup to test her DNA.

A flashback reveals the history of Laverne Douglass. Once a beautiful and successful model, she fell into misfortune after an unplanned pregnancy. Her partner abandoned her, and her family disowned her. Seven months into the pregnancy, she miscarried the child. A botched surgical incision left her with a prominent scar, and she was unable to have more children. Her modeling career ended, and she was left working a retail job when she was offered money to impersonate the dead girl’s mother. Resentful of her past losses, she accepted the payment without hesitation.

Nessa arranges a funeral for the unidentified girl. After the service, Franklin comforts a grieving Nessa, and they kiss. He reveals that Laverne Green declined an invitation to the funeral, and he now believes Nessa’s suspicions. He agrees to help her get a DNA test comparing Laverne’s cup to a strand of the girl’s hair that Nessa collected. At the cemetery, Harriett plants a large, poisonous bush called angel’s trumpet on the grave, intending it as a warning to the killer.

During the service, Jo receives a call that her client, Rosamund Harding, has died in a car crash. The police are at her gym to retrieve Rosamund’s belongings from her locker. Joe races to the gym. After the police leave, she discovers that Rosamund was secretly using a second locker that is secured with a combination lock spelling “FAITH.” Inside, she finds a Polaroid of the now-buried girl, naked and terrified.

This chapter recounts events from Rosamund Harding’s perspective before her death. After a career-ending injury led to addiction, she married art dealer Spencer Harding. While living on Culling Pointe, she hired a local girl, Mandy Welsh, as a personal assistant, but Mandy never showed up for the job. Rosamund then found three photos inside a portfolio case; at the bottom of one, someone had written the name “FAITH.” She stole a different, unlabeled photo to hide in her gym locker.

Suspecting her husband of being a serial killer, Rosamund hid the photo at Jo’s gym. Spencer began telling her that she was mentally unstable; he even had a doctor prescribe her sedatives, which he administered. Addled by the drugs and dimly realizing that her own life was in danger, Rosamund tried to signal for help by carving the word “FAITH” into an apple and tossing it to Jo and Harriett on the beach.

Chief Rocca arrives at the gym to oversee the investigation into the photo. He dismisses the women’s theory about Spencer Harding, citing a lack of forensic evidence. A lab analysis later confirms that there are no usable fingerprints on the photo.

Jo runs into Claude Marchand at the gym; Claude has joined because Culling Pointe is experiencing an infestation of bees, which are attracted to an invasive weed. Claude reveals that Jackson Dunn is in intensive care after a bee attack. She also states that Leonard Shaw knows about Spencer’s money-laundering scheme; she is certain that Spencer had Rosamund killed by hacking her car’s computer system. She offers to help Jo and her friends get revenge. Jo confronts Harriett, who confirms that the seeds were Scotch broom—a weed that attracts bees. She also admits to knowing that Jackson was allergic. Harriett states that she does what she believes to be necessary, not what is simply “good.”

Nessa arrives with news that a DNA test has confirmed Laverne Green is not related to the dead girl. Laverne has disappeared. Later, Spencer’s bodyguard, Chertov, breaks into Harriett’s house. She ambushes him in her garden, paralyzing him with a potent poison and demanding information.