A fire breaks out in the Reformatory kitchen, and Fenton Haddock forces himself through the smoke as staff and boys put it out. Boone helps stop the flames with water after extinguishers and frantic efforts contain the blaze before it spreads to the storeroom or freezer. Haddock is shaken because fire awakens old trauma, but once the danger passes, his fear turns to anger and he demands to know who caused it.

Haddock questions the kitchen boys, starting with Turner, whose hand is badly burned after he tried to beat back the flames with a towel. Turner says the small fire suddenly leapt up the wall as if it were alive. Kendrick, who was supervising the stoves, insists no burners were on and no one was in the room when the fire began. When Haddock threatens mass punishment unless someone explains how a fire could start by itself, the boys answer that a haint caused it.

The boys say the room has long felt haunted and mention the ghost of a white boy with a knife in his back. Their story makes Haddock connect the fire to the kitchen ghost Boone once trapped in a jar, Clint Newsome, and to his own knowledge that spirits can affect the physical world. Haddock regains control by deciding that if a ghost caused the fire, he will capture that ghost too.

Haddock then asks for Robert Stephens. The boys give uncertain sightings, and Boone admits he had sent Robert to hunt ghosts. Percy Crutcher says he saw Robert near the shed shortly before the fire, dirty or greasy-faced, and claims Robert said he was going to the dormitory. Haddock senses Percy is lying but focuses on Robert, ordering Percy to find him immediately.

Elsewhere, Marian Hamilton sits alone in the band room in deep moral crisis. August Montgomery's secret burial and the Reformatory's unchecked violence have convinced Marian that staying makes her complicit, though she still wants to help the boys. She begins packing up to leave her job for good.

Percy arrives and tells Marian he finally went inside the shed behind the administration building. There he found a hidden space with a filthy bloody mattress and chains, confirming a boy's claim that Haddock sexually assaults boys there. Horrified, Marian insists they must leave and tell someone. Percy agrees they cannot keep working there, but says Haddock has sent him to find Robert; after recalling that he saw Robert covered in Vaseline and carrying a bag, Percy realizes Robert may be trying to escape.