The novel flashes back to Sara’s initial detainment. She was flying back to Los Angeles from London following a conference trip paid for by her employer, the Getty Museum. After being scanned by Scout, the AI assistant in TSA, she was directed to go to Line B for additional verification. Sara is impatient, since her husband is circling LAX waiting for her, but complies. The officer checks her identification and calls over another officer, Hernandez, who confirms that Sara must go to Inspection and Prevention because her risk score is too high.

Sara is brought to Risk Assessment Administration and forced to wait; she worries about missing their lunch reservation at a new restaurant, thinking the twins must be upset. She thinks of her parents, who, as immigrants, were always early and overly cautious at airports. It never helped, as they were constantly humiliated in airports, with one TSA agent destroying Sara’s new shoes out of dislike when she was eight. Scout had improved this experience; they were since waved through the lines without issue. Now, now the AI is causing Sara problems, too.

The officer in Risk Assessment, Segura, asks why the police were called on the London flight; she explains that a man on the flight had a medical emergency before takeoff and refused to leave, so the police were called to remove him. The man was furious with Sara for meddling with his personal life, which she suspects could have driven up her risk score. Sara explains that her employer paid for her trip and gives Segura her social media accounts. He tells her the algorithm has flagged her an imminent risk. Sara is confused since her social media accounts are innocuous and used for posts about history. Segura takes her phone and scrolls through her photos. Segura seems like he is about to release her but is suddenly pulled away by another officer.

A brief prescript describes the goal of the Risk Assessment Administration, or RAA: to keep America safe by investigating suspicious people using data analytics to prevent their crimes. They claim that a core goal is to respect privacy.

Eisley follows Sara to the library and asks how to use a computer, wanting to email her husband. Sara explains that she must pay $400 every two months for a PostPal account and then an additional fee to rent a tablet, but the books in the library are free. Eisley points out that the two-month subscription rate makes no sense when the retention is supposed to only last 21 days. Sara reads the news on the computers, including news that a data mining corporation named OmniCloud is trying to buy data on K-12 students to help match employees to jobs. Before she can finish reading, another prisoner enters, and the attendant, Williams, demands that Sara give up her spot, making up a rule about a 20-minute limit. Since nobody can argue with him without risk, Sara leaves.

Sara goes to her job, which is a contracted job between Safe-X and NovusFilm. She watches clips and identifies if the clip is real or generated. Sara quickly identifies an AI-generated weather pattern but grows tired as the clips play on, reality and false images blurring. A video of a toddler sitting in a barber’s chair throws Sara back to the memory of Elias visiting her for the first time with the twins; she was distraught when she realized Elias had cut Mohsin’s hair. The children are distant from Sara, and she feels distant from them. She feels more alienated when Elias describes how kind Hinton was to him and the children when they had entered the facility. Sara clicks that she cannot tell whether the image is real or not.

A reproduced newspaper article describes the legal fight in the Senate over the Crime Prevention act, providing some history; 20 years prior to the novel, 86 people were shot on live television during the Super Bowl, with 32 killed after the cameras were cut. Republicans argued that the gunman alone was at fault. Data mining to determine people’s risk factors became popular to avert similar crimes. While mistakes have been made, the bill is popular, but there is a bipartisan split over the ability of independent contractors to extend detainments without government knowledge or approval.

In a flashback, Sara waits impatiently for Segura to return. She is taunted by the posters of Hawaii behind Moss, the guard watching her. She remembers wanting to go to Hawaii for her honeymoon only to discover Elias had already decided on Prague and given her no choice, which he has done recurrently. Even having children was a point of contention, since Sara didn’t want them early and he did. Eventually, she’d complied and had surprise twins, exhausting her during the pregnancy and after.

Sara demands to know why Moss can’t stamp her passport, accusing him of prolonging her stint in security because of her surname. Moss stops talking until Segura returns. Segura explains that her score is 518, higher than the acceptable 500, and demands to know who Zach Miller is. She explains that he is her cousin, and she hasn’t seen him in two decades. She remembers how Zach tackled her and her brother when they were kids, cutting Sara’s lip. He’d gotten out of trouble because his mother believed him over Sara. Segura informs Sara that her score shot up because she lied to law enforcement—her company isn’t paying for her trip but reimbursing her for the costs. Sara is horrified that this counts as a lie but realizes that arguing is futile.

The chapter starts with redacted notes from a Safe-X meeting at Madison. Medications were lost in an automated truck pileup; local companies are bidding to expand and renovate the east wing; the PostPal contract is renewed with an increase in Safe-X’s revenue; mandatory cybersecurity training hasn’t been completed by the employees. The CRO refuses the safety marshals’ request for more emergency supplies because of the tight budget. Attendant Jackson is ordered to increase overtime shifts and reduce vacant shifts to zero. The CRO confronts the employees with a video of them talking about Madison in public and threatens them with lawsuits if they don’t comply. He then calmly invites them to a barbecue.

In the hot laundry room, Sara works with Toya to wash the detainees’ white uniforms. Toya missed breakfast because she was trying to get her blood pressure medication, but the infirmary ran out. Toya’s hearing is soon, but the afternoon time makes them both skeptical: Detainees are only freed in morning hearings. Sara and Toya sit down to read while the laundry runs. Toya gives Sara a homemade bookmark as a birthday present.

Sara exercises after her shift and spends time with Marcela, who asks her for help writing a letter of request for her guitar. Sara hesitates, considering the rules, but finally agrees to think about it. When Sara returns to her room, Emily, a firefighter, is working on a comic book about a “pyromaniac mutant.” Emily asks what Eisley is like, and Sara can’t give a firm answer. During the afternoon check, Sara hurriedly asks Yee, the attendant, if there is an email for her. Elias has sent her nothing, even on her birthday. She hasn’t heard from him in a month and has missed periods of the twins’ life changes.

The CRO announces that, for Indigenous Peoples’ Day, the entertainment room will show a new documentary. He says that the water is shut off in two rooms, and Trailers A and B have a new contract to work.

In a flashback, Segura explains that Sara’s behavior and sleep data forced him to file a retention order. Sara is baffled, not remembering any consent forms about dream data going to the government. Elias used the sleep prosthetic to get four hours of sleep and stay rested despite the demands of the twins. Sara’s refusal to get one made her exhausted and unpleasant to him and the children. Sara gave in and got the Dreamsaver, which helped her. Sara argues with Segura that dreams are random and meaningless, but he refuses to listen and argues that they represent her subconscious desires, and her dreams show that she wants to harm her husband. Sara tries to argue as Moss takes her to be retained, but Moss warns her that any fighting will harm her score. She submits. She tries to use her final call to call Elias, but it doesn’t go through. She cannot remember her father’s new number. Moss escorts her away.

Sara boards the bus with the other new retainees and listens to the recorded message from Safe-X informing her of the rules and her rights. At Madison, she is given a medical examination and orientation and realizes she must obey everything. Sara lies on her bed and worries about Elias and her future. Emily introduces herself and helps Sara adapt, warning her about Hinton. Sara ignores the warning and tries to argue about her retention with Hinton. She realizes Hinton doesn’t like her, but he gives her three minutes to make a call. Sara calls Elias, who hasn’t heard anything from the RAA and was worried. Her father, also on the line, is disappointed in her. Sara begs Elias to get her a lawyer before the call drops.

Soon, Sara goes to the Case Management office to ask about a lawyer. She double-checks that the officer has spelled her name right: Hussein is commonly misspelled, even though her father changed it from Ait-Elhoussine to avoid that problem. Sara grows desperate, leaning over the counter to look at the computer despite the officer’s warning. Hinton tasers her, and she collapses. Her retention is extended by 45 days because Hinton wrote her up for her hair falling out of its bun, for resisting orders, and for loitering. Sara’s lawyer later advises her to follow the rules. In the present, Sara has been detained for 291 days.

The postscript to Part 1 notes the Dreamsaver terms of service, which states that it has a license to use sleep data privately, except in cases where it would be legally required by law enforcement.