Outside the courthouse, investigator Brea Cooke sees a former colleague of hers, Ron Reynolds. They are both there to cover the events of the first gentleman’s trial for murder.

The Secret Service wants Cole to go into the courthouse through the back door, but he insists on going through the front door to show he is not afraid of the press or publicity. The president supports his decision.

The president and Cole walk up the steps of the courthouse. President Wright tells the crowd she supports her husband. As they walk into the building, Brea calls them “a criminal enterprise” (13). She believes Cole is responsible for the death of her partner, Garrett Wilson.

Eight months before the events of the prologue, Brea and Garrett meet with their editor at Nottingham Publishing, Marcia Dillion. They have written a number of books of investigative nonfiction together. Garrett tells his editor he wants to write a book that proves that Cole, the first gentleman, is a murderer.

Cole played football at Dartmouth and later for the New England Patriots until a knee injury brought his football career to an end. Garrett and Brea tell their editor that a custodian at Dartmouth told Garrett that Cole was accused of sexual assault while attending Dartmouth. He also told Garrett that years later, Cole had dinner plans with a Patriots cheerleader, Suzanne Bonanno, whom he had been secretly dating, the night she disappeared. Garrett says Suzanne’s case file has disappeared. They want to prove Cole murdered Suzanne. Marcia greenlights the project.

Garrett buys a gem-studded guitar to celebrate the win. He plays it in the shop, and the customers applaud.

Cole and President Wright met while attending Dartmouth and started dating afterward. Burton Pierce, the President’s chief of staff, also attended Dartmouth with them.

At the White House, Pierce tells the president that he has learned about Garrett and Brea’s book project. He’s anxious about the news because the president’s administration is negotiating a “Grand Bargain” to “restructure” entitlement spending to prevent the national debt from spiraling out of control. The president tells Pierce to “take care of it” (31).

Brea and Garrett drive to Seabrook, New Hampshire, and meet with Felicia Bonanno, the mother of the missing cheerleader, Suzanne. She tells them that on June 7, 17 years ago, Suzanne had been visiting Felicia before moving into her new apartment with a fellow Patriots cheerleader, Amber Keenan, in Boston. She told her mother she planned to meet Cole (whom she had secretly been dating) at Walmart to buy some things for the new apartment. She says Cole and Suzanne planned to go to dinner together on the shopping trip. Felicia never saw Suzanne again. She called the police two days later when Amber called to say Suzanne never arrived in Boston.

Felicia had a bad feeling about Cole when she met him. Suzanne and Cole’s relationship had to be secret because it was against the rules for football players to date the cheerleaders. Felicia believes Cole had something to do with her daughter’s disappearance.

Suzanne’s sister, Teresa, arrives at Felicia’s trailer intoxicated. She tells Garrett and Brea that Cole strangled Suzanne in the front seat of Suzanne’s car while it was parked outside the trailer. Then she runs away.

Garrett and Brea run after Teresa and stop her from driving away. Teresa says that her statement was “bullshit” but “also the truth” (38). She explains that she had once been on the phone with Suzanne and overheard Cole telling Suzanne to hang up or “he’ll break her fucking neck” (39). She had told the police this information, but they did not believe her because she was a teenager with a substance abuse problem.

At the White House, Cole reminisces about how he met President Wright when they were both at Dartmouth. They had broken up after graduation and then reconnected after his knee injury ended his football career. President Wright tells Cole that investigative reporters are digging into his past and that it could imperil the negotiations around her Grand Bargain legislation.

After Cole leaves, President Wright thinks about the call she had with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) after the midterms. OMB had warned her that entitlement payments (Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid) were spiraling out of control and that within 10 years the national debt would be greater than the national income. She had begun to work on a plan that “saved entitlements” and “reduced the debt”: the Grand Bargain (45). They had kept it a secret so as not to harm negotiations.

Cole goes for a run on the National Mall. He thinks about his plans to revive JFK’s President’s Council on Physical Fitness.

A small crowd cheers Cole when they spot him on his run. He stops to sign autographs. A young woman hands him a Patriots yearbook open to a picture of Suzanne to sign. Cole freezes and then walks away.

While driving outside Hanover, New Hampshire, Brea is pulled over. As a Black woman, she panics, afraid the police will shoot her. The policeman issues her a citation. She’s relieved to have lived through the traffic stop.

President Wright goes to visit her vice-president, Ransom Faulkner, in the hospital where he is being treated for colon cancer. He tells her to play “hard ball” to pass the Grand Bargain. He warns her that “someone might be trying to sabotage” her from within the administration (59).

President Wright runs into Rachel Bernstein, the vice-president’s chief of staff, in the hallway outside his hospital room. Rachel believes Faulkner was “cheated out” of the presidency by President Wright. They do not get along. President Wright tells Rachel to let Faulkner rest. When Rachel objects, she reminds her that Rachel “serve[s] at the pleasure” of the president (61).

At Dartmouth, Brea and Garrett interview Judd Peyton, the custodian. He tells them that there was a rumor that Cole raped a girl during a homecoming party during his senior year. The underground campus newspaper had planned to run a story about it, but never did because the reporter was threatened and told to stop pursuing the story. Judd tells them his cousin Manny, who had worked on the grounds at Gillette Stadium when Cole played for the Patriots, had told him that it was known Cole had been dating Suzanne at the time of her disappearance. The Patriots let Cole go after his knee injury, but Judd suspects it was also related to Suzanne’s disappearance. He says Suzanne had been dating an Italian named Tony before she had dated Cole.

Brea and Garrett ask a residential manager at Dartmouth for a list of people who had lived in the same off-campus student residence as Cole and President Wright. The residential manager tells them her father likely had the records somewhere off-site. She tells them her office had been broken into a few days prior. The burglars had broken the filing cabinets, but nothing had been stolen.

Brea and Garrett go to a bar hosting an open mic night. Brea signs Garrett up to play. He invites her onstage and sings “You Are So Beautiful” by Joe Cocker to her.

A man going by the name of Jack Doohan surveils Brea and Garrett across the street from their hotel. That afternoon, he had killed a student in the woods while surveilling the couple and hidden the body in the trunk of his car. He plans to dispose of the body that night.

The next morning, Garrett tells Brea that the custodian had remembered Suzanne’s ex-boyfriend’s full name: Tony Romero, from Cranston, Rhode Island. Tony has a record for assault and other crimes.

Garrett tells Brea he has asked a Ukrainian researcher, Daryna, to assist them. He tells Brea to look for the student reporter who had been threatened to drop the rape allegation story while he goes to speak with the detective in Boston who handled Suzanne’s missing person’s case. Then he will go to Providence to talk to Tony.

At the White House, President Wright meets with Jessica Martin, a Washington Post reporter. Jessica asks the president about the Grand Bargain legislation and the changes to the entitlement programs. President Wright argues that excessive debt will result in hyperinflation, which is a national security issue. Wright convinces Jessica to hold off on reporting the story in exchange for an exclusive.

Brea gets in touch with Ellen Layton, who used to work at the underground newspaper. Ellen tells Brea that Floyd Whelan was the reporter who had been threatened to drop the story that Cole had sexually assaulted a freshman student. She says Floyd had later been killed in action in Afghanistan.

Garrett meets with retired Boston detective Eddie O’Halloran. O’Halloran tells Garrett that they had learned of Suzanne’s disappearance 48 hours after she had last been seen. They had quickly transferred the case to the Seabrook PD in New Hampshire. The FBI had also been involved. He thinks Seabrook PD cleared Cole of the crime. He warns Garrett that it will be hard to prove the case against such a powerful person.

Garrett goes to meet Tony Romero, Suzanne’s ex-boyfriend, at Raymond’s Tavern in Providence. He gathers that Tony is associated with the Providence Mob. Garrett tells the bouncer at the door that he is there to ask Tony about Suzanne. Tony tells Garrett their relationship had not been serious and that Suzanne had told him Cole had been violent with her at times—she’d even asked for his help, but he had refused to intervene against a Patriots player. Tony walks Garrett out. He beats Garrett up and warns him not to include anything about Tony in his book. Garrett blacks out.

Jack watches Tony beat up Garrett outside the bar. He sees Tony call someone. Jack reads Tony’s lips; Tony says on the phone, “I think it’s time our man confesses” (99). Jack watches Garrett get into his car and drive away. Jack follows.

Brea begins driving home to Connecticut. She gets a call from Teresa. Teresa tells Brea that Suzanne’s roommate, Amber, has changed her name and that she will tell Brea her new name for a fee. Brea tells Teresa she could probably get a reward from the Patriots for information that leads to the arrest of the person responsible for Suzanne’s disappearance. Teresa tells Brea Amber’s new name.

Brea drives to a bar in South Boston. She sees a bartender named Lillian—Amber’s new name. Brea and Lillian talk briefly. Lillian tells Brea that Cole seemed nice but entitled. She says Cole could “get rough” with Suzanne when they fought. She says Cole seemed particularly agitated during an afterparty after they lost to the legendary Pittsburgh Steelers. Before she can say more, Lillian/Amber has to return to work, but she promises to call Brea with more information because she “want[s] justice” for Suzanne.

Brea returns to the farmhouse where she lives with Garrett. She sees Garrett on the couch, injured. He tells her Tony beat him up. Brea feels like someone might be watching the house.

Lillian drives to an ice cream shop with her children in the back seat. She made up the allegations against Cole in an attempt to profit from them. She walks into the ice cream shop while her children wait in the car. Two masked men shoot her.