In a flashback, Fen remembers first meeting Hank when she was sixteen and he arrived as the new team leader on Shearwater. She is initially drawn to him because he stops a vehicle for penguins and later gives Fen and her brothers animated lessons about the seed vault, biodiversity, and the value of the seeds under his care. Because Dominic is emotionally reserved, Hank’s openness, intelligence, and constant talking feel exciting to Fen, and her private crush grows through months of harmless fantasy.

When Fen is seventeen, Hank learns that both of them will remain on the island a little longer before leaving for good, and his behavior changes. He tells Fen he knows she is attracted to him, frames their involvement as acceptable because she is old enough, and says it will soon be over. Fen convinces herself this is what she wants, feels flattered to be chosen, and does not know he has a wife. She also believes Dominic must never find out.

After Fen’s period is late, she panics and assumes she is pregnant. She fears the physical consequences, the need to tell Dominic, and the prospect of leaving the island for an abortion. Though part of her briefly wonders whether she could keep a child with her family’s help, Fen realizes she is not ready and does not want this future with Hank. She decides Hank must help her because she believes he loves her.

When Fen goes to the vault, she finds Hank in a disturbed state, dumping out carefully stored seed packets and talking about refusing orders to let some seeds drown. He leads Fen to the field hut, reveals he has a wife, rants that the world is ruined, and speaks as if the island is full of the dead. Hank says he has decided that no one will choose which seeds survive, because they will all drown, and then he embraces Fen and suddenly forces her head under seawater. Fen survives because she stays calm, pretends to go limp, and then escapes underwater. Raff and Alex, who have come down the hill, reach the shore in time; Raff tackles Hank and the two young men drag him into the hut while Fen stays in the freezing water, unable to trust that she is safe.

Dominic arrives after Alex calls for him, and once Fen confirms that Hank tried to drown her, Dominic goes into the hut and brutally beats Hank until Raff pulls him away. Tom, Alex, and Raff take Hank to the base hospital for Naija to treat, while Dominic takes Fen home. There, Fen tells him she and Hank had been involved for about a month and says Hank had become obsessed with drowning the seeds so no one else could decide their fate. Two days later, Fen gets her period, ending the pregnancy scare, but the chapter reveals both Hank’s predatory abuse and the violent event that explains Dominic’s hatred of him.