At Ardsmuir, Jamie meets Lord John Grey again as the new governor of the prison. Lord John's predecessor tells him that he invited Jamie to dinner once a week to discuss the other prisoners and suggests that Lord John continue the custom, which he does. John believes that Jamie knows the whereabouts of the French gold allegedly sent to Bonnie Prince Charlie. When the prison is fully renovated, the Crown transports the prisoners to America and uses the former prison as an army barracks; but John has Jamie sent to Helwater in the Lake District, the stud farm of Lord Dunsany, as a groom. Dunsany has two daughters; the elder, Geneva, is infatuated with Jamie but is betrothed to Lord Ellesmere, an elderly man, and she blackmails Jamie into sexual relations with her. Geneva leaves Helwater and marries Lord Ellesmere. Nine months later, she gives birth to a boy and dies the next day. Ellesmere tells Lord Dunsany that the baby is not his, and threatens to kill him; but Jamie kills Ellesmere instead. The baby, called William, returns to Helwater with them. In reward for his actions, Lady Dunsany offers to ask Lord John to petition for a pardon so he can go home to Lallybroch. However, Jamie stays several more years at Helwater, until Willie's resemblance to himself becomes evident, whereupon he accepts the pardon. In the 20th century, Reverend Wakefield’s adopted son, Roger MacKenzie, offers to determine Jamie's fate. When Roger, Claire, and Claire's daughter Brianna find evidence of Jamie writing an article printed in 1765, Claire considers returning to him, and Brianna supports her. On Halloween of 1968, Claire returns to Jamie's time. Claire finds Jamie in Edinburgh under the name of Alex Malcolm, smuggling liquor in the guise of a printers' shop. His nephew, Young Ian, runs away from Lallybroch to “assist” his uncle in the business. Claire is reunited with her unofficial adopted son, Fergus, whom she knew as a 10-year-old French pickpocket, now in his 30s. To explain her absence, the family tells everyone that Claire was with relatives in France, believing that Jamie was killed at Culloden, and only just learned that he was alive. After a failed smuggling run, Jamie takes Claire and Young Ian to Lallybroch, where Claire discovers that Jamie married again and has two stepdaughters, Marsali and Joan, and that Jamie's wife is Laoghaire, who, 20 years earlier, had Claire arrested and nearly burned at the stake for witchcraft.