As Briar follows Major Gilbert, she watches him eat and then purchase an expensive necklace. At the post office, he receives a Swiss postmarked letter from a person named Greta. He then argues with a blond woman (Amelia) outside a French restaurant.

Jerry Whitcomb notices Briar following Major Gilbert. Jerry is training for a local FBI position, and he has heard McManus mention Sandra’s missing receipts book and Briar. Three pages from a classified document are gone, and McManus suspects that Briar may have taken them. He has requested search warrants for Copper Pond Farm and Mr. Schmidt’s home.

Major Gilbert sends a person to find Peter and ask him to play in the soccer game. Cadence, Briar, Bess, and Gram drive to the base, and though Peter lacks an identification card, the Army soldiers let him in because they want to beat the Navy. Bess calls Peter “Peter,” so Cadence reminds her to call him “Donald.”

Amelia confronts Cadence about her relationship with Major Gilbert and mentions the mysterious Greta. Briar connects Amelia to the blond woman who was fighting with Major Gilbert in front of the French restaurant.

With Peter’s help, the Army team wins, and two Navy players from the Minneapolis area question him. Growing up, they knew of a talented soccer player who looked like him, but his name was “Peter,” not “Donald.” Before they can question Peter further, Gram has a medical emergency.

After the game, Briar follows Major Gilbert into his office in a Quonset hut. She hears Major Gilbert on the phone. He mentions leaving his “men” in three days. The conversation ends due to Gram’s emergency.

An Army ambulance takes Gram to the hospital, where the doctor says the aspirin and vinegar likely saved her life. Major Gilbert, who followed the ambulance to the hospital, gives the Smith sisters a ride home. Briar is convinced that Major Gilbert is a spy, and Cadence wants to “make out” with him.

Mr. Wespi must report for military service, so the Bay closes, and Cadence and Bess lose their jobs. Mrs. Stanhope confronts Cadence, claiming that Bess is only using the Smiths to play “penniless farm girl.” Mrs. Stanhope promises to get Cadence a high-paying job at Simon & Schuster if Cadence convinces Bess to return home. Cadence rejects the offer. Mrs. Stanhope then threatens to tell the Vineyard Gazette to stop publishing Cadence’s column and to tell Winnie that Cadence never graduated high school. Cadence calls Mrs. Stanhope a “horrible person.”

At the hospital, Cadence and Bess discuss the fighting in Dieppe. They feel that if Tom were dead, the Army would have contacted them already. They then discuss Cadence’s upcoming plans with Major Gilbert and the powerful effect Cadence has on men.

That night, Cadence and Major Gilbert plan to swim in Copper Pond, so named because of the high concentration of copper in the water, which supposedly makes a person’s skin feel as smooth as glass. Cadence watches Major Gilbert change into his swimsuit. At the pond, Cadence notices a scar, which he says he got when Germans ambushed his unit and kept him in a POW camp until he escaped. After Major Gilbert tells Cadence that he broke up with Amelia, they kiss. They take off their bathing suits and hurry to the boat, which has a small bed.

The chapter ends with Cadence’s column. She mentions the ASEs, Margaret’s New York City trip, and the Army defeating the Navy in the soccer game. She notes Gram’s illness and gives away Daphne du Maurier’s mystery in Rebecca (1938).

Concerned about McManus, Briar thoroughly cleans her house and Mr. Schmidt’s home. She also dwells on Cadence’s relationship with Major Gilbert and Tom’s status. McManus comes by with the Coast Guard, and Briar realizes they’re the “notification team.”

In 2016, Mari is captivated by the story Mrs. Devereaux has been telling her. Delaying her departure, Mari criticizes Mrs. Stanhope and Amelia and wonders why Peter didn’t leave. Mrs. Devereaux pushes Mari to go to the bonfire, where she discusses the Smith story with Ronan. Mari already feels like she belongs to the family. Ronan mentions that a development company is trying to take the Copper Pond Farm since Mrs. Devereaux isn’t legally a part of the Smith family. Before returning to the story, Mrs. Devereaux alerts Mari that Ronan doesn’t have a girlfriend.

The Coast Guard tells Bess, Briar, and Cadence that Tom was involved in the Dieppe combat and that he’s missing and presumed dead. Bess cries, and Briar lambasts the laconic Coast Guard officer for his relative safety. Peter believes Tom died in a “failed operation.” Under fire, his unit left him behind. Enraged, Cadence slaps Peter and declares that she wishes Peter, not Tom, was dead.

Tom’s funeral is at a Methodist Church. Cadence remembers the heart bracelet he gave her for her 16th birthday. Tyson and Shelby are there, and Major Gilbert arrives late. He tries to talk to her about Briar’s suspicious behavior, but Cadence threatens to remove him. She thinks about New York and concludes that Peter must go.

Briar didn’t give a eulogy at Tom’s funeral, but if she had, she would have said that Tom isn’t truly dead and that the government views him and the other soldiers as disposable. She sees the mourners as mindlessly accepting the government’s self-serving story about Tom’s heroism, and she compares them to Hitler’s unthinking followers.

As Briar wonders who will meet the U-boat during the new moon, she realizes the shortwave radio is missing. In the attic, she is alarmed to witness Peter sending signals using a flashlight. However, she quickly realizes that Peter is signaling Margaret, not the U-boat; Peter and Margaret are in love.

Now, Briar’s two suspects are Major Gilbert and Tyson Schmidt. She shows Peter the Nazi photos from Mr. Schmidt. Peter says the people in the photos are not in Germany. The picture in the woods is Camp Siegfried in Yaphank, Long Island, where there are many German Americans. One of Peter’s crew members joked about going there and joining the American Nazi followers of the Bund (“league” or “union” in German).

As for the ring, Peter explains that Kuno could mean “Conrad” or “Junior.” Peter thinks Tyson has the traits to be a spy, but so does Major Gilbert. Shelby, too, could be the spy since her father works for Henry Ford.

Major Gilbert comes by the farm and talks to Cadence about marriage. He concedes that his life is “unorthodox,” but promises that he doesn’t have a wife in the attic, like Edward Rochester in Jane Eyre. He invites her to London to meet his mother.

Briar wonders if Major Gilbert is using marriage to deflect attention away from his spying activities. Cadence is unconvinced. His family is wealthy, and he was appointed by UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill. However, when Briar mentions Greta’s letter through regular mail, Cadence agrees to sneak into Major Gilbert’s office and search it.