In 1952 Washington, DC, Lisavet Levy wakes in a stark white room after drifting in and out of consciousness. She is weak, drugged, and kept under guard, with nurses giving IV fluids and injections as Jack Dillinger oversees her “refeeding” and recovery. For three months she is isolated with minimal stimulation, watching seasons change through a barred window while the steady whisper of Time in her mind proves she has not lost her connection to it.

Jack finally visits and begins interrogating Lisavet about Ernest Duquesne and the “memory game” that removed Ernest’s memories of her. Under pressure, Lisavet confirms she could see Ernest’s memories while he slept and erase them, and admits she can time-walk, touch objects while doing so, insert herself into memories, and alter outcomes—creating the chasm as a consequence. Jack then forces a different kind of lesson by giving her a folio of clippings that detail the war she missed, including the Holocaust; he bluntly tells her her brother Klaus died in a camp and argues that her efforts “never made any difference.” He also presses her about the baby, and Lisavet lies that the girl died.

Over the next year, Jack keeps Lisavet compliant by bringing books and continuing his visits, until he finally takes her outside and reveals she has been held in a psychiatric hospital. Overwhelmed by sensation in the courtyard, Lisavet instinctively stops Time: rain, cars, and wind freeze in place. Jack reacts with astonished greed, tests the phenomenon by touching suspended raindrops, and orders her to reverse it; when she succeeds, he begins using supervised outings to reacclimate her to society while tightening his control over her.

On a late-night trip to Jack’s workplace, Lisavet is confronted by timekeepers Patrick Brady and George Collins and a bound, sleeping young man named Harry. Jack demands Lisavet erase Harry’s memories and provides a black notebook to capture them; when she resists, he implies consequences for both Harry and Lisavet. Lisavet complies, then challenges Jack’s morality, but Jack justifies the erasures as necessary protection and needles her about the chasm, suggesting it may involve Lisavet’s daughter; he adds that Brady thinks the child is still alive, making the threat explicit.

Two days later, Jack claims doctors are ready to release Lisavet and offers freedom only on his terms: a TRP job as his secretary, a boardinghouse placement, a pardon and identity papers, and total silence about her past. Lisavet accepts and chooses the new name Moira Donnelly. On a final “outing,” Jack tests her cover story at a tailor and then pushes her to sever her old self by cutting and dyeing her hair; Jack approves the sharper, darker look, and Lisavet feels the last symbolic link to who she was slipping away.