In 1965 Boston, Moira tries to train the uncooperative teenager Amelia Duquesne to act as a timekeeper for the Temporal Reconnaissance Program. Moira explains that timekeepers store and catalog historically “important” memories, now determined by government programs, and describes the missing memory-book: dark blue leather, mismatched pages, and a five-petaled flower stamped on the cover. Amelia continues to resist entering the time space, and Moira stalls in reports to her boss, Jack Dillinger, claiming she needs more time.

When Moira leaves for groceries, Amelia slips out to a nearby library for relief from Moira’s constant watchfulness and the fear surrounding Ernest Duquesne’s death. Moira tracks her there, confronts Amelia for removing and hiding the watch, and forcibly straps it back onto Amelia’s wrist. When Amelia admits she is terrified of finding Ernest’s body and reliving his death, Moira reframes the task: Amelia should find Ernest’s memories to understand why he left her the watch and to help locate the stolen book.

With no “door” present, Moira escalates. She grabs Amelia and shoves her out an open library window, using the fall to thrust Amelia into the time space. Left behind, Moira justifies her harshness as necessary because the department’s watches are out of reach and, without the book, Russia could rewrite history uncontested.

Jack Dillinger appears in the library and criticizes Moira’s methods while also pushing for results. He gives Moira a folder of profiles of known Russian timekeepers and identifies a likely suspect: seventeen-year-old Anton Vasilyevich Stepanov, the son of Vasily Stepanov, whom Moira recognizes as a dangerous connection from the past. Jack also presses Moira to use Amelia to question James Gravel, who is refusing to talk, insisting that recovering the stolen watches and rooting out rebels matters alongside finding the book.

Inside the time space, Amelia panics in the darkness until a young male timekeeper helps her reach a central path where the starry, swirling “sky” calms her. He explains that memories appear as “ghosts” until they are assimilated into a book and briefly demonstrates the assimilation process using Amelia’s open poetry book. Amelia, wary of his accent and unsure who to trust, declines to tell him whom she is seeking and heads toward the American section.

Amelia encounters spectral memories, including a monk-robed man who says he knew Ernest and even knows Amelia’s name; he points her in a direction that yields no success. After nearly three hours, Amelia leaves through a summoned door and returns to the library to find Moira gone but a note and a folder waiting, along with poetry collections by women. Amelia opens the folder and recognizes the profile photo: the helpful boy from the time space is Anton Stepanov—seventeen-year-old Russian timekeeper and suspected murderer.