Betsy ventures into the baking tent during a thunderstorm and discovers a dead body suspended above.

A press release announces the 10th season of Bake Week, introducing celebrity chef Archie Morris as Betsy's co-host.

Six contestants arrive at Grafton Manor in Vermont for the start of the Bake Week competition.

During bread judging, Peter's bake is ruined by a salt-sugar swap found to have been deliberately engineered.

Gerald storms out of the tent after discovering his homemade orange essence has been replaced with gasoline.

Hannah wins the pie day challenge after impressing both judges with her confident bakes.

Betsy learns from her agent that Archie has been secretly plotting to displace her as Bake Week's host.

During cake judging, Betsy tastes Lottie's entry, recognizes who she is, and abruptly eliminates her from the competition.

Gerald overhears Melanie and an unidentified man discussing the sabotage plot but falls from the balcony while trying to identify them.

Stella follows Hannah to the East Wing and blacks out from a panic attack before she can intervene.

Betsy finds Archie's body in the tent, begins to call 911, then hangs up and screams instead.

While searching for a flashlight after a power outage, Pradyumna finds a birth certificate naming Richard Grafton as Lottie's father.

Confronted by the group in the East Wing, Betsy confesses to having murdered Lottie's mother Agnes in a fit of adolescent rage.

Back at Grafton Manor for a documentary, Gerald spots Graham the cameraman vaping and exposes him as one of the saboteurs.

During her documentary interview, Hannah privately recalls how she and Stella killed Archie in self-defense after he attacked her.

The 10th season of Bake Week begins when six contestants arrive at Grafton Manor, joined for the first time by celebrity co-host Archie Morris. Sabotage strikes on the first day when Peter's bread bake is ruined by a deliberate salt-sugar swap, and the mystery deepens on Day 2 when Gerald's orange essence is replaced with gasoline and he storms out of the competition. As Betsy learns that Archie is plotting to take over the show entirely, tensions behind the scenes grow as dangerous as the competition itself. On cake day, Betsy recognizes a contestant she has been hiding from and eliminates her unfairly, while Gerald falls from a balcony after overhearing the saboteurs. The crisis peaks when Betsy finds Archie dead in the tent and chooses not to call for help, and the night ends with her shocking confession that she murdered Lottie's mother Agnes decades earlier. One year later, the survivors return to Grafton Manor for a documentary, where Gerald exposes the saboteurs and Hannah privately reveals the truth about how Archie really died.

The headline events of Bake Week's deadliest season.

Archie walks in late and interrupts Betsy's welcome toast at the contestants' first dinner at Grafton Manor.

Stella gets lost in the manor's corridors on her way to dinner and nearly faints from a panic attack.

During the bread challenge, Pradyumna discovers that his refrigerator door has been left open, threatening to ruin his dough.

After filming ends on Day 1, Betsy overhears show coordinator Melanie complaining about her and expressing satisfaction over Peter's departure.

Late on the first night, Pradyumna notices Lottie wandering the hallway as if searching for something.

During the pie challenge, Lottie dreams the previous night of playing with young Betsy at Grafton Manor.

From her window late on the second night, Stella watches Hannah and Archie emerge together from the woods.

Gerald returns to Grafton Manor after initially leaving and conceals himself in an unused room to surveil the baking tent.

Pradyumna and Lottie search Betsy's East Wing study while she is away and discover recipe cards written in Agnes's hand.

Stella wins the cake day challenge, earning high praise from both judges.

Hannah breaks up with her boyfriend Ben from a pay phone, choosing to pursue a future with Archie.

The manor loses power while the remaining contestants wait in the kitchen for police to arrive.

Hannah and Stella share their experiences of sexual assault by powerful men and form a bond of solidarity.

Lottie seeks out Betsy alone in the East Wing and confronts her; Betsy acknowledges Lottie by her childhood nickname.

Back at Grafton Manor a year later, Pradyumna reflects in the library on the deep gratitude he feels for the relationships Bake Week gave him.

From the moment Archie crashes Betsy's opening dinner toast, the cracks in Bake Week's polished surface begin to show. Small but unsettling incidents—Pradyumna's refrigerator door left open, Betsy overhearing Melanie's disloyalty—signal that control of the manor is slipping away from its host even before the first day ends. While contestants observe each other's secrets, including Stella watching Hannah emerge from the woods with Archie late at night, the real drama builds quietly off-camera and away from the tent. As the competition reaches its turning point on cake day, Stella earns her first real win while Hannah makes the desperate phone call to break up with her boyfriend for a man she barely knows. The chaos following Archie's death—including a power outage and a tense confrontation in the East Wing—forces Hannah and Stella to finally share their stories and forge a bond of survival that will define their lives beyond Bake Week. One year later, Pradyumna's quiet reflection in the library brings the emotional arc of healing and connection to a close.

The behind-the-scenes moments that shaped the competition.

Before arriving, Gerald studies online blueprints of Grafton Manor to map his routes through the unfamiliar house.

Lottie guides a panicking Stella to dinner and immediately senses a darkness lurking beneath Betsy's gracious hostess performance.

Peter tells Pradyumna that the blueprints of Grafton Manor suggest a hidden staircase to the sealed fourth floor must exist.

After Day 1, Hannah accepts Archie's offer to show her the forbidden East Wing in exchange for her secrecy.

During the pie challenge, Archie quietly invites Hannah to meet him alone again after dinner that evening.

Pradyumna discovers a hidden door inside a wardrobe at the end of the west wing hallway leading to a staircase.

In the abandoned servants' quarters, Pradyumna finds a photograph of Richard Grafton with a woman; Lottie recognizes her as her mother.

Lottie reveals her childhood connection to Grafton Manor to Pradyumna, who immediately offers to help her uncover the truth.

Betsy returns unexpectedly early, forcing Pradyumna and Lottie to hide in Archie's room, where they find Hannah asleep in his bed.

Stella examines the recipe cards in Lottie's room and realizes Betsy has been publishing Agnes's recipes as her own for decades.

After witnessing Archie's manipulation of Hannah, Stella resolves to write an exposé about his history of abusing contestants on previous shows.

Pradyumna presents the birth certificate to the assembled group, revealing to everyone that Lottie is Betsy's half-sister.

Police sirens approach Grafton Manor, having been alerted by Gerald, who called them without telling the other contestants.

Betsy is arrested and Lottie inherits Grafton Manor, partnering with Pradyumna to restore the estate and her mother's memory.

In prison, Betsy meets with her agent and focuses entirely on planning a public comeback rather than appealing her conviction.

Long before arriving at Grafton Manor, Gerald's meticulous study of the building's blueprints hints at the kind of mind that will eventually expose the truth about the competition's sabotage. Meanwhile, Lottie arrives with a hidden agenda—she has returned to the manor of her childhood to discover what happened to her vanished mother—and Pradyumna becomes her unlikely ally after finding a hidden staircase that leads to abandoned servants' quarters. A photograph found beneath a pillow and recipe cards in a locked study slowly piece together a buried history of affair, theft, and murder, while Betsy's unexpected early return catches Pradyumna and Lottie off guard and exposes Hannah's secret with Archie. Stella's discovery that Betsy stole Agnes's recipes shatters her deepest illusions about her idol, while her decision to write an exposé on Archie's abuse gives her journalism a renewed purpose. When the night of Archie's death forces everyone into the open, Pradyumna's presentation of the birth certificate triggers Betsy's full confession, and Gerald's quiet call to the police brings the reckoning that follows. The novel closes with Betsy in prison—still plotting her comeback, utterly unrepentant, and entirely unchanged.