On the way home to London, the trio has coffee at the airport bar. Devlin begins to discuss the kiss with Gabrielle, and she assumes he regrets it. She immediately apologizes and tells Devlin that they can forget about it, which isn’t what Devlin wants. Gabrielle sends pictures of the other 19th-century violin to Roger, hoping he can help prove its connection to their violin. Gabrielle thinks that if she can prove the provenance of the violin, she can restore her professional reputation and find the happiness that has eluded her.

Zita and Alara Karman, two sisters and virtuoso musicians, play with a Ouija board. Zita asks if she will become a famous composer. The board says yes. The sisters inherit the violin from their uncle and share it. 

Alara meets Lucas Olsson, a famous figure skater, and they marry and move to London. Zita joins them. She plays a small concert with a string quartet and meets Peter Broderick, a cellist from Philadelphia. Peter and Zita get married.

Though they’re happy for a time, Peter eventually insists that Zita stop playing music and focus on being a traditional wife. Zita agrees, but her resentment grows. She and Alara use a Ouija board to summon the spirit of Robert Schumann. Zita believes Schumann speaks to her and commands her to go to the Prussian State Library in Berlin. There, she finds Schumann’s lost Violin Concerto. She organizes a concert and plays the piece publicly, which Peter sees as a betrayal. That night, as Zita sleeps, Peter packs his things and leaves. He takes the violin with him and throws it into the Thames River in a jealous rage.

Verity stands outside Wilding’s and sees teddy bears and dolls in a shop window further up the street. She thinks about the tea parties she’d have as a child with her toys before her father would yell at her and disparage her dream of getting married and having a stable life. She enters Wilding’s and asks Gabrielle about her leg. Gabrielle is shocked that Verity would approach her after having her stabbed.

Verity tells Gabrielle that the violin wasn’t at Paddington, and Gabrielle reminds her that she doesn’t own the violin; she’s merely appraising it. Verity asks about Gabrielle’s father, showing that she knows he isn‘t actually dead. Gabrielle asks Verity to let her finish finding the provenance of the violin. Verity agrees but warns her that the next knife will find Gabrielle’s heart.

Devlin adds more locks to Walter’s apartment. He knows he’s falling for Gabrielle, but he isn’t sure where their relationship stands.

Walter goes to a medical appointment. Two months ago, he received a terminal cancer diagnosis. Walter’s medications are working, but he’s still dying. He now sees that the meaning of life is connection with other people and living life to the fullest. Gabrielle drives by and sees Walter leaving the oncology ward of the hospital. She realizes she’s not the only one with secrets.

Gabrielle visits her father Gregory in prison, where he is serving a sentence for selling several fake violins to collectors to finance Gabrielle’s violin career. Gabrielle never knew that her father paid Max a small fortune to train her, and it makes her guilt over her failure to perform feel heavier.

Gregory greets her warmly, though she hasn’t visited him before. She gives him photos of the violin, as he has the greatest appraising mind of anyone she knows. Gregory looks closely at the photos and recognizes bone in the violin’s bridge. He suggests that Gabrielle find the tutor who taught the mystery luthier, possibly in the United Kingdom.

He asks to keep the photos, one of which has some music Gabrielle wrote scribbled on the back. Gregory says he can’t understand why Gabrielle “threw [her talent] away” (250). Gabrielle explodes and almost tells Gregory the truth about how Max sexually abused her. She leaves, and Gregory keeps looking at the photos. The violin reminds him of one a girl in Montreal once owned, a girl who asked him for lessons and whose name began with V.

Caroline Bradshaw sees a doctor in Paris. He diagnoses her with lung cancer and claims he can treat her, but Caroline refuses. She decides to travel the world with the time she has left. After traveling to Istanbul on the Orient Express, Caroline meets Agatha Christie in her hotel, the Pera Palace. The women walk to the market together, stopping at an instrument shop. Caroline sees a violin and feels immediately drawn to it. A Thames bargeman rescued the violin from the river and brought it to a luthier for repairs before it ended up in a market in Istanbul.

Caroline buys the violin and plays it night and day in her hotel room, despite her lack of skill. Edward Faulkner is in the room below. He has taken money from Caroline’s father to track her down, unaware that the woman playing the violin above him is the woman he searches for. One day, he knocks on Caroline’s door to ask her to stop playing. He realizes he’s found Caroline and apologizes for his rudeness. He asks her to lunch, then telegrams her father that he found her, but he needs more time.

Caroline and Edward have lunch, and they get along well. Caroline coughs blood into her handkerchief, and Edward worries about her. He carries her to her room when she becomes too weak. He offers to take her to the hospital, but she tells him about her cancer.

He tells her that her father sent him. Caroline is angry for a moment, but when Edward explains his dire financial straits, she softens. He tells her that he loves her, and she reciprocates, even though she doesn’t have much time left. Two weeks later, Caroline dies, and Clara’s consciousness feels grateful to be reminded of the importance of love, even if fleeting.

Gabrielle goes to the library before remembering her therapy session with Trudy. She grabs a book about English luthiers on her way out. She finally discusses Max with Trudy, revealing how he emotionally, physically, and sexually abused her while pushing her to be “the greatest.” Gabrielle thinks her father should’ve recognized what was going on and helped her, especially after her mother’s death.

She remembers that Max said he’d make her a “real woman” after she finished her solo, but she never did due to the pain in her wrist. She wonders now if the pain was her way out. Trudy says that Gabrielle experiences “disavowal,” or a split in the mind that prohibits her from knowing the truth that she carries deep down. Trudy tells Gabrielle it’s difficult to carry this trauma alone and encourages her to connect with others. Gabrielle pictures Walter, Devlin, and the violin in her mind.