Miv's family discusses moving away from Yorkshire due to the Ripper murders, and Miv vows to catch the killer to prevent it.

Miv and Sharon buy a notebook and begin listing suspicious things they observe in their neighborhood.

Miv adds shopkeeper Omar Bashir as the first suspect on the list, based on his Ford Corsair, dark features, and immigrant status.

The girls befriend Omar's son Ishtiaq and rule out Omar as a suspect after learning he is a grieving widower.

Miv adds Mr. Ware and Healy Mill to the list after noticing her teacher's angry behavior and his recent move to the area.

Richard Collier and Neil Callaghan hold classmate Stephen Crowther underwater at the school swimming pool.

Mr. Ware drags Stephen from the pool and resuscitates him, then accompanies him to hospital and breaks down apologizing.

Police broadcast a taped voice message in a Geordie accent claiming to be the Ripper, and Miv suspects truck driver Jim Jameson.

Jim Jameson is attacked by coworkers and later cleared by police after his feet do not match the Ripper's footprints.

Miv and Sharon travel to Chapeltown, are accosted by two men, and are rescued by a sex worker named Maggie.

Brian Lockwood dies by suicide after Miv secretly hands his petrol-soaked shirt to the police without telling Sharon.

Uncle Raymond abducts and harms nine-year-old Alison after Miv's plan to trap him accidentally goes wrong.

Richard Collier corners Sharon on the rooftop of Healy Mill, and Sharon falls to her death trying to avoid his grasp.

Peter Sutcliffe is caught in a routine traffic stop and named as the Yorkshire Ripper, and Austin realizes he worked alongside him.

Miv retrieves her notebook, pins a photograph of Sharon to the wall, and closes the list of suspicious things for the last time.

Twelve-year-old Miv creates a list of suspicious things to catch the Yorkshire Ripper and prevent her family from moving away from Yorkshire, pulling her best friend Sharon into an amateur investigation. Their suspects include Omar Bashir, then their teacher Mr. Ware, then a Geordie truck driver named Jim Jameson, each of whom proves innocent as real acts of violence continue around them. A trip to Chapeltown exposes the girls to genuine danger, and Miv's secret decision to hand petrol-soaked evidence to the police contributes to the death by suicide of Brian Lockwood. Miv's attempt to trap a predatory church volunteer goes wrong, leading to the abduction and harm of nine-year-old Alison. The investigation concludes at Healy Mill, where a confrontation with Richard Collier ends in Sharon's death, and the community is left to grieve while Peter Sutcliffe is finally caught a year later in a routine traffic stop.

The core events of Miv's investigation and its devastating consequences.

Miv finds her mother unconscious in the bathroom and calls her father's workplace, triggering Aunty Jean's permanent move into the family home.

Omar reflects on emigrating from Pakistan, his late wife Rizwana, and the challenge of raising Ishtiaq as the only Pakistani family in town.

Miv and Sharon sneak into Healy Mill via the fire escape and hear a security guard describe the death of a boy called John Harris.

Miv and Sharon research John Harris at the library and discover the twelve-year-old worker was accidentally strangled by machinery during a game.

Helen Andrews begins her new job as a librarian, delighted by the work and concealing the reality of Gary's controlling behavior at home.

Miv and Sharon discover that the stranger living in the Portakabin at Howden's Scrapyard is Arthur, a rag-and-bone man grieving his dead wife.

Youths break into Arthur's Portakabin overnight, threaten him, and scatter his belongings across the scrapyard.

Omar cooks a meal and silently leaves a portion at the scrapyard gates for Arthur, flashing his headlights before driving away unseen.

Miv and Sharon help Arthur prepare his house for Jim Jameson to move in and finally recognize Helen Andrews's face in Arthur's wedding photograph.

Richard Collier and Neil Callaghan are seen distributing National Front leaflets door-to-door, and Paul Ware finds one that fell from Richard's bag.

Omar's corner shop is destroyed when someone pushes a petrol-soaked rag through the letterbox, and the Bashir family temporarily moves to Bradford.

Sharon openly holds Ishtiaq's hand in the school corridor and ignores the other children's hostile remarks.

Uncle Raymond is arrested, and Aunty Jean tells Miv he abducted Alison and hurt her, warning Miv to tell an adult if anyone ever touches her inappropriately.

Marian speaks to Miv for the first time in two years at the hospital, calling her by name and comforting her after Sharon's death.

Valerie Lockwood hosts a monthly grief group where Miv, Ishtiaq, Paul, Omar, Helen, Arthur, Jim, Mr. Ware, and Ruby share mementos of those they have lost.

While Miv pursues her investigation, the lives of the people around her follow their own quiet arcs of grief, compassion, and danger. Omar Bashir navigates racism and loneliness after his wife's death, while Helen Andrews hides the bruises of Gary's abuse beneath her cheerful librarian facade. The girls discover the tragic history of Healy Mill and befriend the isolated widower Arthur, who lives in a scrapyard Portakabin and is later helped back home through small acts of community kindness. The National Front's escalating harassment culminates in the arson attack that destroys Omar's shop, and Uncle Raymond's arrest exposes predatory danger within the church itself. After Sharon's death, it is Marian who breaks two years of silence to comfort Miv, and the community ultimately finds a way to mourn together through a monthly grief group hosted by Valerie Lockwood.

The community's stories that run alongside Miv's investigation.

Miv throws a coin into Old Mother Shipton's Petrifying Well on a school trip and wishes she could catch the Yorkshire Ripper.

Miv walks past Ishtiaq in the school corridor without acknowledging him after befriending him during the holidays, then feels sick with guilt.

On a school bus, Miv overhears Mr. Ware confide to another teacher that he is becoming bitter, deepening her suspicion of him.

Miv meets Hazel Ware and her son Paul at a church coffee morning and feels unexpectedly flushed when Paul smiles at her.

Miv is stunned to learn that Sharon has been secretly giving Stephen Crowther running lessons after Mr. Ware humiliated him at the pool.

Miv adds Jim Jameson to the list after Austin recounts at dinner how coworkers joked that the Geordie trucker must be the Ripper.

Miv spots Sharon leaving Omar's shop wearing her best clothes and realizes her friend has been secretly spending time with Ishtiaq.

Aunty Jean confronts Austin in the garden, accusing him of neglecting his family in favor of other priorities and threatening to move out.

Sharon lends Miv her sparkly lip gloss on the first day Paul Ware transfers to their school.

Mr. Spencer goes missing during the holiday club show and is found collapsed in a pool of vomit, reeking of alcohol.

Sharon tells Miv she will no longer take part in the list, arguing that their interference in people's lives can have disastrous consequences.

Austin tells Miv on her birthday that he has accepted a managerial job and the family will be moving away from Yorkshire.

Miv hears sounds of violence and Helen crying behind the Andrews' flat door and calls emergency services, then waits for the ambulance to arrive.

Miv follows Austin through the streets at night and watches Ruby open Sharon's front door and passionately kiss him.

Marian tells Miv she was attacked and raped walking home from bingo and stayed silent out of shame, then declares the attack was not her fault.

Miv's investigation is shaped by a series of moments where she either makes a fateful choice or learns something that forces her to see the world differently. Early discoveries about Mr. Ware and her growing feelings for Paul mark the beginning of her adolescence, while Sharon's secret acts of kindness toward Stephen and her emerging relationship with Ishtiaq reveal how far the two friends have grown apart. Miv's impulsive decision to hide evidence from Sharon and hand it to the police alone has catastrophic consequences, and Sharon's refusal to continue the list after Brian's death exposes the moral cost of treating human suffering as a puzzle. The revelation of Austin's affair shatters Miv's trust in her father, and Marian's final disclosure that she was raped walking home from bingo reframes every silence Miv has endured, offering both mother and daughter a path toward healing.