Ezra brings Immanuelle to his chambers, a room crowded with forbidden books. He reveals that on the day of his first vision she was underwater for 20 minutes. Immanuelle admits she met the witches and blames them for the plague. Ezra shows her census papers bearing the Mother’s mark—a seven-pointed star that identifies her as a witch’s descendant through her father’s line—and admits he knew this before they entered the Darkwood.

To protect her, Ezra burns the papers, promising never to reveal her true identity. Immanuelle warns that the plagues have not ended and asks him to protect the vulnerable when he becomes Prophet. He agrees. They part, sensing it is a final goodbye.

For three weeks, Immanuelle studies her mother’s journal and tries to avoid the Darkwood’s call. At home, her sisters, Glory and Honor, fall ill. Late one night, after bleeding for the first time since the plagues began, she hears knocking and finds Glory sleepwalking.

She tracks the sound to the kitchen and discovers Honor, delirious, smashing her head against the door. Immanuelle recognizes the second curse—blight, a plague of madness—has begun.

Hundreds of citizens fall sick with a mysterious illness that Immanuelle privately calls the Blight. The sick begin to act strangely, hurting themselves and others, and violating the Holy Protocol. The youngest members of the Moore household become sick: Glory thrashes so violently she must be restrained, while Honor lies comatose. Powerless, Immanuelle decides to seek answers about her father’s line in the Outskirts in the hopes that she can find a way to stop the curses.

Immanuelle finds her grandfather Abram in his workshop carving a small coffin for Honor. Abram expresses regret for giving in to social pressure failing to give Miriam a proper burial. He says they must sometimes sin for a greater good and agrees to lie to Martha so Immanuelle can go to the Outskirts.

At daybreak, Immanuelle crosses blighted lands and reaches the mostly untouched Outskirts. In the local chapel, the priest recognizes her, explaining that everyone in the Outskirts knows her family. He tells her that her grandmother, Vera Ward, fled beyond Haven’s wall to a village called Ishmel after the death of her son Daniel, Immanuelle’s father. The priest says Vera wanted to raise Immanuelle herself, but that she was not allowed to. He encourages Immanuelle.

The priest shows Immanuelle a mural of the forest shaped like a mother encircling Bethel. He explains that the Outskirters believe that the Mother of their theology is more powerful than the Father. At Immanuelle’s request, he assigns a young woman, Adrine, to guide Immanuelle to the ruins of the Ward family home.

Adrine leads Immanuelle to the charred ruins of the Ward house. When Immanuelle notices that the Blight has not affected the Outskirters, Adrine suggests the blight is purging sin in Bethel. On the foundation stones, of the ruined cottage, Immanuelle finds four carved sigils. Adrine explains them: a siphon to draw power from the forest, a shield for protection the witch’s mark, and a dangerous cursing seal.

Immanuelle suspects that these sigils are linked to the plagues, and makes graphite rubbings of them. She discovers a path leading out of the cottage to the Darkwood, where she finds twin oaks etched with markings she recognizes from her mother’s journal. Adrine refuses to enter the Darkwood, and Immanuelle continues alone.

Immanuelle discovers an abandoned cabin, and hears a voice calling her name from inside. While exploring the cabin, she finds a hidden room with a circle of ash and animal bones. The walls are covered in handwriting that Immanuelle recognizes as her mother’s, and she realizes that she has found the cabin where her mother fled after Daniel’s death. The writing on the walls prophesizes a daughter who will redeem the flock with plague.

Immanuelle recognizes three large sigils carved into the walls: the cursing seal from the foundation, a birthing seal, and a binding seal. Immanuelle concludes that Miriam made a pact with the Unholy Four and conceived Immanuelle to serve as the living vessel for the four plagues in order to take vengeance on the people of Bethel after Daniel’s death.

Enraged that she has been used to curse her friends and family, Immanuelle burns the cabin to the ground. As she does, she begins to understand the fury and hurt that her mother must have felt when Daniel was killed. Immanuelle flees the Darkwood and returns home, where Martha apologizes for burning Immanuelle’s hand with a hot poker. Immanuelle is shocked when Martha announces that the Prophet has come to hear their confessions personally.

Immanuelle enters to find the Prophet and Ezra waiting. The Prophet dismisses the others to interrogate Immanuelle alone. He questions her about witchcraft, her mother’s sins, and her purity. He brandishes his dagger, threatening her physically and implying he is sexually interested in her. Ezra re-enters and insists his father must leave.

When the Prophet resists, Abram arrives, strengthening the demand. The Prophet leaves with a final warning. Outside, Ezra apologizes to Immanuelle for his past behavior, and he and Immanuelle agree they must find a way to stop the plagues together.

That night, Immanuelle dreams of her parents in love, then witnesses Daniel’s execution by a young Prophet. Immanuelle is disturbed by her mother’s visceral grief at Daniel’s death. The dream shifts to the cathedral, filled with corpses, where Miriam and Lilith claim vengeance on the Prophet and the people of Bethel. Immanuelle is horrified to find Leah, Judith, Martha, Abram, and the rest of her family among the dead.

Martha and Ezra wake Immanuelle with news that Leah is giving birth several weeks early and bleeding badly. Martha is shocked to find that Immanuelle knew of the pregnancy.

In the birthing room at the Haven, Ezra’s mother Esther reveals that Leah has been in labor for two days. Immanuelle realizes that the Prophet didn’t want news of the birth to spread and reveal that he had a sexual relationship with Leah before their marriage. Leah reveals signs of the blight. Martha insists that the life of the child is more important than the life of the mother, and performs a crude C-section while Leah bleeds to death. She delivers a baby girl with a cleft lip. Horrified, Martha announces that the baby has no name. Immanuelle holds the newborn, then collapses outside in grief. Ezra tries to comfort her as she reckons with the fact that she has cursed everyone she loves.