On the flight to Sark, Robin tells Strike about a discovery she has made in the Reata Lindvall case. She reveals that the fragmented human remains were missing their hands, feet, and heads, suggesting the same modus operandi as the murderer of William Wright. It could not be proven that the remains were of both Lindvall and her daughter.

The detectives arrive on the car-free island of Sark. Strike’s leg is already giving him pain, and it becomes apparent that he will have to walk long distances on rough terrain. Robin goes into a store and buys Strike a walking stick.

The detectives locate Danny’s brother, Richard, who insists he does not know where Danny is. In the local pub, the barman tells them he has just seen Danny gardening.

Robin takes a call from Murphy as Strike approaches Danny, who hits Strike in the face with a spade.

Robin runs after Danny and apprehends him. Danny explains that he fled to Sark after noticing a man following him, who had been hired by Lord Branfoot. Once Danny had left London, the man Branfoot had hired took credit for the murder in the silver vault, claiming the body was Danny’s. Strike and Robin point out that Danny is only safe until William Wright is correctly identified. They advise him to go to the press with what he knows before Branfoot discovers the truth. Danny reluctantly agrees, saying he will have to tell his mother about his career in pornography first.

Strike and Robin conclude that Oz is not the person Branfoot paid to kill Danny.

Robin receives a text from Murphy expressing doubt that she is fully invested in their relationship. She reassures Murphy that she loves him even as, internally, she feels uncertainty. As Strike prepares to tell Robin that he loves her, she unexpectedly starts crying and tells him about her ectopic pregnancy. Comprehending Robin’s fragile state, Strike realizes that it is the wrong time to mention his own feelings.

Strike keeps watch on Mrs. Two-Times in a London hotel bar, waiting for Kim to take over. He receives a call from a man who claims to be Rupert Fleetwood. Fleetwood refuses to disclose his location, although Strike hears French conversation in the background. Kim turns up late with facial injuries, explaining that she was attacked by the ex-wife of her former boyfriend, Ray. Ray died by suicide, and his ex-wife blamed Kim. After Strike buys Kim a drink, she becomes flirtatious and “accidentally” displays a nude photograph of herself on her phone. Strike makes it clear that he will never have sex with Kim and leaves her in the restaurant.

Robin is pleased when Strike calls to say Kim has resigned and that Wardle is going to join the agency. Afterward, she takes a video call from Tyler’s friend, Wynn. Wynn’s manner is lewd and arrogant, and his friend, Darren Pratt, laughs in the background throughout the call. Wynn is dismissive of the idea that Tyler is dead, stating his friend is working in a London pub. He claims that Tyler was in love with Chloe. He bought Chloe a flower bracelet for her birthday shortly before they both left Ironbridge. When Robin presses Wynn for the name of the pub where Tyler is working, he asks her to show him her breasts. Robin hangs up.

Murphy returns home and claims he has left his phone at the gym. He goes to collect it, leaving his gym bag in the living room. Robin notices that Murphy’s water bottle is leaking from the bag. However, when she mops up the spillage, she realizes it is alcohol. Searching the wardrobe, she finds six concealed bottles of vodka.

Strike continues to watch the house in Carnival Street as Plug has not yet been arrested. His attention is drawn to suspicious activity at a junkyard on the same road. Although it is nighttime, a van enters the scrapyard, and shortly afterward, Strike hears the van being compacted for the incinerator. The van’s driver then leaves in a different vehicle. Strike recognizes the van’s driver as Marco Ricci, a well-known gangster. Noting the name of the junkyard, Brian Judge Scrap, he reflects that Brian Judge translates to Barnaby Rudge in Cockney rhyming slang. He realizes he has found Barnaby’s, the place where Jason Knowles’s body was disposed of.

When Robin confronts Murphy, he cries, admitting he relapsed after making serious mistakes in the gangland shooting investigation. Murphy begs Robin not to leave him, promising he will resume attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Robin tells Murphy that they must withdraw their offer on the house.

Strike visits the flat belonging to Jim Todd’s mother, Nancy Jameson. No one answers the door, and Strike lets himself in with a set of skeleton keys. He discovers a half-starved cat and the decomposing bodies of Nancy Jameson and Jim Todd. Both have stab wounds, and Todd has a head injury.

Strike is arrested for breaking and entering and taken to Scotland Yard for questioning. He is interviewed by DCI Northmore and Murphy’s contact, DCI Iverson. Strike claims that he entered Mrs. Jameson’s flat because he saw two people on the floor and signs of movement, which turned out to be a cat. He refuses to reveal that Decima is his client. Iverson asks whether his client has recently had a baby, revealing that Wright told his neighbor, Hussein Mohamed, that his girlfriend was pregnant and that he planned to buy her an engagement ring. Northmore fruitlessly questions Strike about who tipped him off that Jason Knowles’s body was at Barnaby’s. The DCI implies that Strike has been impeding the police investigation by bribing sources. Strike suggests that the public would be interested to learn that DCI Truman belongs to the same masonic lodge as Lord Branfoot. The police officers stop recording and leave the room. When they return, they offer to drop the charges if Strike tells them the location of Barnaby’s.

Murphy texts Robin, revealing that he is under professional investigation for drinking at work. He claims that Robin’s ectopic pregnancy was the trigger that made him relapse. Robin is angry as she is now certain Murphy had been drinking on the night the condom split. However, she also recalls how Murphy supported her after the trauma of working undercover at Chapman Farm. Thinking of the recent suicides of Charlotte and Kim’s ex-boyfriend, she worries how Murphy will cope if she leaves him.

Strike and Robin surmise that Oz killed Jim Todd because he had become a liability. Although Todd had an alibi for Wright’s murder, he was involved in its planning. He found Wright his flat and gave copies of the keys to Oz. Strike still cannot understand how Wright and his killer returned to Ramsay Silver in the early hours of the morning without being caught on CCTV. He speculates that Ramsay Silver may once have been part of the Freemasons’ Hall, and there is a way of accessing it from the other building.

Robin resolves to wait until her boyfriend is less fragile before deciding on the future of the relationship. She tells Murphy she is not leaving him but is not ready to move in with him.

Robin catches Cosima outside Dino’s, but she flees inside, and her father, Dino, emerges from the club. Dino takes Robin to one of the club’s private rooms and speaks disparagingly of Rupert and Decima, observing that they are both equally unattractive. He also dismisses the notion that his godson loved his daughter, Decima. Dino is clearly surprised to learn from Robin that Rupert gatecrashed Sacha’s birthday party after stealing the nef. He summons Cosima, who claims unconvincingly that Rupert’s appearance caused a scene, but nothing significant was said.

Robin reads a book on masonic ritual and cracks the code embedded in Niall’s note to Jade. She and Strike conclude that the numbers, two, five, zero, six, two, zero, one, six likely refer to June 25, 2016. Strike has consulted architectural plans of the Freemasons’ Hall and discovered that Ramsay Silver was created from the building’s storerooms. Although there was a door linking them in the vault, it had been bricked up years earlier.

Rena Liddell calls Strike again, rambling about bridges and stating that she wants a gun. Midge also calls, revealing that Plug’s friend in Carnival Street has had Plug’s dangerous dog euthanized. She has heard Plug say that he plans to stab his friend in revenge.

Strike accesses the dark web to find Sofia Medina’s archived OnlyFans page. He finds it on a website devoted to pornographic images of women who have been murdered. Thinking about Niall, Strike also looks at Islamic State execution videos showing beheadings and drownings. Wardle, who is following Mrs. Two-Times, calls Strike to warn him that his surveillance target is outside the detective agency.

Mrs. Two-Times tells Strike that she knows her husband has her under surveillance. She also knows that he is unfaithful to her with escorts. She hires the agency to provide proof of his infidelity so that she can secure a favorable divorce settlement.

Wardle notices that Cormoran the fish is floundering at the top of the tank. He tells Strike the fish has gulped too much air while feeding and recommends giving it a mashed pea. He also informs Strike that Murphy is in trouble for drinking alcohol at work. He’s learned from Iverson that Murphy is planning to propose to Robin. Wardle speculates that if Murphy is fired from the police, he and Robin may set up their own detective agency, “Murphy and Murphy” (708). When Wardle has gone, Strike goes to his flat in search of frozen peas.

On Robin’s day off, Murphy calls her to say his parents have unexpectedly arrived. Robin reluctantly agrees to join them for lunch at his flat. Shortly afterward, Strike calls, asking Robin if she can work as they need to maintain the appearance of surveilling Mrs. Two Times. He is abrupt with Robin when she explains her lunch commitment.

Before leaving the flat, Robin sees the man in the green jacket loitering outside. She arms herself with a rape alarm and pepper spray, but the man has gone by the time she gets into the Land Rover.

Robin feels she is being “assessed” by Murphy’s parents. The couple does not mention Robin’s job but discusses Murphy’s sister’s pregnancy and Robin’s recently born nephews. Robin is relieved when Murphy and his father watch a football match while his mother sits quietly, knitting a baby’s sweater. Remaining at the table alone, Robin conducts research on her phone. She finds two Instagram accounts in Chloe’s name. The first features a photograph of Chloe’s birthday party in which Chloe is with Tyler and wearing a bracelet of enamel violets. The new account features photographs of Chloe and a handsome young man in various European destinations. Robin also checks the Instagram of the man pretending to be Calvin Osgood, noting with alarm that he has several new followers. She posts a comment under her alias, Venetia Hall, warning Oz’s followers that he's an imposter.

Murphy is angry with Robin when his parents leave, criticizing her failure to engage with them during the football match. When he storms out, Robin searches his home. She finds no alcohol, but in his wardrobe, there is a jeweler’s bag containing a diamond engagement ring. Horrified, she drives home.

Midge tails Lord Branfoot and discovers the address of the flat where he films unsuspecting individuals having sex with porn stars.

Strike drives to Hereford to meet Rena Liddell after she finally reveals the location of the Golden Fleece.

Strike texts Robin apologizing for his abrupt tone. At the Golden Fleece, the barman directs him to a rooftop garden where Ralph Lawrence is waiting for him. Lawrence states that Rena has been sectioned (committed to a psychiatric hospital) for trying to obtain a gun.

Robin has nightmares about her undercover experience at the Universal Humanitarian Church. She is also anxious about Murphy’s impending proposal. She goes to interview Hugo Whitehead’s father, Faber, who believes Chloe was responsible for the car accident in which his son died, and that Tyler was an innocent scapegoat. He reveals that, on the night of the accident, CCTV showed a female loitering suspiciously by Tyler’s Mazda while Hugo and Ann-Marie were in the concert. The police ruled Tyler out of the investigation as his phone records showed he was in Ironbridge all evening. Mr. Whitehead asserts that Chloe had a motive to sabotage the vehicle because she had argued with Hugo and Ann-Marie when they teased her about the violet bracelet Tyler gave her. He suggests that her sudden decision to go interrailing was motivated by her desire to escape the consequences of her actions.

As Robin gets into the Land Rover, she messages Chloe again, saying she has further questions. While she is distracted, a man climbs into the passenger seat and grabs her by the throat.

Robin realizes the man is trying to kidnap her. Spraying her pepper spray, she punches him and screams.

Strike informs Danny that he must contact the press immediately, as the agency is about to expose Lord Branfoot’s activities. Fergus calls Strike, warning him that Culpepper has a new source and is about to publish an article about the “love triangle” between Strike, Bijou, and Andrew Honbold. Strike calls Bijou, telling her to stick to the story that they never slept together.

Strike swallows his pride and visits his rock star father, Jonny Rokeby. He asks Rokeby to put him in touch with a good lawyer, insisting he will pay his own legal fees. Strike tells his father’s lawyer, Denholm, that he did not have a sexual relationship with Bijou, and a DNA test has proven he is not the baby’s father. Rokeby adds that Culpepper must apologize for the story about Strike and the sex worker.

When Strike continues to refuse his financial assistance, Rokeby guesses that his son is acting out of loyalty to his late mother, Leda. Strike’s mother claimed that his biological father offered no support, forcing them to live in poverty. However, Rokeby reveals that he stopped sending money directly to Leda after Strike’s Auntie Joan contacted him. Joan informed him that Leda was spending his money on drugs while failing to buy her son shoes. Rokeby put in place legal safeguards, and Leda never bothered to access the funds set aside for her son. Rokeby also corrects Leda’s claim that Strike was conceived on a beanbag during a one-night stand at a party. He reveals that their relationship was more serious and less lurid than Leda portrayed it.

Rokeby admits that he should have been a better father and explains that he initially thought Eric Bloom, the lead singer of Blue Öyster Cult, had fathered Strike. Leda was obsessed with Bloom, and Strike was born with hair just like that of the lead singer. He did not know that Strike inherited this characteristic from his Uncle Ted.

Rokeby commiserates with Strike on Charlotte’s death, observing that, like his first wife, Carla, Charlotte was “Gorgeous but crazy” (750). During the conversation, Robin calls to tell Strike she is at the police station after being attacked. Her attacker’s name is Wade King, and he has been arrested. Strike offers to pick Robin up, but she reveals Murphy is on his way. Afterward, Rokeby notes that Strike’s half-sister, Prudence, likes Robin. He advises his son that if he wants to be with Robin, he should not let her go. Before Strike leaves, Rokeby tells his son he would like to remain in touch. Strike agrees to meet for a beer.