Cassie, stranded in the past with no money, sits on the TKTS stairs in Times Square through the warm night, choosing the noisy, bright crowds because they feel safer than being alone elsewhere. Overwhelmed by lights and despair, Cassie cycles between numbness and panic as the city carries on around her.

At dawn Cassie realizes she has dozed off, and the sight of an out-of-date film advertisement confirms she is truly displaced in time. Cassie goes to Penn Station to use the toilet and drink from a water fountain, then wanders past food she cannot afford. Seeing a homeless woman makes Cassie fear that survival will slide into invisibility and permanent abandonment.

Cassie walks north until she reaches Bryant Park, where she and Drummond had recently watched the younger Drummond. There Cassie spirals again, remembering Hugo Barbary’s taunt that he may have killed Izzy, and Cassie breaks down until exhaustion forces her to think practically about who might help.

Cassie considers reaching her grandfather or finding Izzy ten years earlier, but rejects both as impossible or unreliable. Cassie briefly hopes the past version of Drummond Fox could help, then remembers that after witnessing his friends’ massacre, Drummond fled and began years of hiding, leaving Cassie no way to locate him.

With no helper available, Cassie decides she must recover the Book of Doors to return home. Cassie tracks down John Webber outside his building and pleads for the Book, explaining she is from the future, but this younger Webber does not recognize her and treats her as a distressed stranger. John Webber gives Cassie cash for food and suggests a women’s shelter, then hurries away, leaving Cassie holding the crumpled notes and still without the book.