Nona asks Camilla to go to the beach or return to school because Hot Sauce had been worried about someone watching the classroom. Camilla refuses because the city has become more dangerous: people were shot in the center, a strangled body was pulled from the river, and the evening would leave Nona outside after dark. Nona argues that her limited time makes her feel responsible for Hot Sauce and the others, but Camilla insists Nona also has responsibilities to Camilla, Palamedes, and Pyrrha.

Camilla takes Nona to buy dinner from the fish shop, where the fishmonger describes escalating unrest. Workers breached the space elevator during the barracks siege, trying to hijack a shuttle off-world, but most were shot and there are no shuttles left. Camilla worries about Pyrrha returning safely. At home, Camilla presses Nona to eat despite Nona's reluctance, but their routine is interrupted by Pyrrha's secret knock.

Pyrrha arrives filthy, bloodstained, exhausted, and smelling of smoke and petrol. Pyrrha says the blood is not hers, though Palamedes takes over from Camilla to examine a shrapnel wound on Pyrrha's arm and uses necromancy to clean and close it. Pyrrha explains that the violence she saw was not the port riot itself but its aftershocks, and she warns that the city's anger has not yet become true fear or full collapse.

While Nona prepares Pyrrha's bath, Pyrrha tells Palamedes that people have been taken to the park to be caged and burned. Pyrrha argues that a rescue would mean facing hundreds of armed people, that the captives are probably not Palamedes's missing House colleagues, and that Camilla must be kept home. Palamedes objects that the captives are still people being burned alive and reveals that Camilla has a half sister, Kiki, among the Sixth House group that came to negotiate; Pyrrha remains unmoved and tells Palamedes to suppress feeling and prevent Camilla from going.

Nona asks Pyrrha for five minutes in the corridor, partly to avoid finishing dinner and partly to think alone. Outside apartment 302, Nona listens to a radio, peels back tape from a window, and looks at the blue sphere over the city. Though Nona knows the sphere has worsened the riots and despair, Nona loves it and secretly hears it sing, saying good night to Varun.

When Nona returns, Pyrrha is bathing and Camilla sits alone, exhausted and sorrowful. Nona lies beside Camilla and offers to go to the park in Camilla's place, reasoning that Nona's strange resilience might help and that Nona is not afraid of dying. Camilla rejects the idea and says that not letting go is her defining trait. After baths, Nona falls asleep, leaving the household tense and helpless against the night's violence.