After Emperor Salvador Corrino disbands the Rossak Sisterhood, Imperial forces give Reverend Mother Raquella’s followers only a few days to leave the planet. Most Sisters are scattered back to their former worlds, while Salvador returns to Salusa Secundus with Sister Dorotea and one hundred members of her faction. Raquella is denied any chance to say goodbye to key Sisters or to her granddaughter.

On Salusa Secundus, Roderick Corrino reflects on the damage caused by Salvador’s rash policies. Roderick remains troubled by the execution of Sisterhood Mentats and the destruction of the Rossak School, but he hopes Dorotea’s faction can preserve some useful Sisterhood skills under close Imperial supervision. Dorotea’s new school will be funded from confiscated Sisterhood accounts and stripped of the breeding program, the Azhar Book, and any unapproved teachings.

Roderick worries that Salvador is appeasing Manford Torondo’s antitechnology movement out of fear rather than conviction. Roderick recognizes that Salvador is becoming more secretive and desperate, and he resolves to reassert his influence before the Emperor’s paranoia turns tyrannical.

Before dawn, Salvador excitedly takes Roderick to Zimia’s central plaza, where a burned and mutilated corpse hangs from a lamppost beneath a placard naming the body as the traitor Toure Bomoko. Roderick assumes another innocent victim has been misidentified by a mob, but Salvador privately reveals that the body is actually Dr. Zhoma. Salvador wants Roderick to falsify the investigation, declare the corpse to be Bomoko, cremate the evidence, and end the long public hunt for the supposed traitor. Alarmed but dutiful, Roderick agrees to take charge of the cover-up.

Later, Roderick visits his sister Anna, who is wading in a garden pool with Lady Orenna and appears briefly happy among the flowers. Anna displays a flood of precise knowledge about botany, birds, planets, chemistry, architecture, and music, but her thoughts spill out uncontrollably. Orenna tells Roderick that Anna recently collapsed and remains overwhelmed by strange voices and unsorted information.

Roderick decides that Anna’s condition may be beyond the help of the troubled Suk School and concludes that the Mentat School on Lampadas may be the only place capable of understanding her mind. He embraces Anna protectively, and Anna responds with affection, telling Roderick that she loves him.