A flashback to one of the previous timelines shows Julia excelling at Brakebills. Dean Fogg explains that her discipline is Meta-Composition better known as Knowledge. It's his strong suit as well. Back in the present timeline, the dean releases Julia from her cell. She knows she should feel guilty, but she doesn't feel anything.

Quentin takes drugs to feel better about his problems. He encounters Julia's shade in a different universe. She's trapped and running out of time. Todd tips off Quentin and Julia that Dean Fogg has studied shade. They go see him, and he explains that there's one person he knows who understands shade better than anyone: Alice. Quentin's confused, and the dean says he means Alice from the 23rd timeline. She was the only survivor of the beast.

Using a powerful spell, Julia and Dean Fogg send Quentin into a folded universe where he can talk to Alice. This version is broken and sad from losing everyone. She feels guilty for fighting with Quentin before he died. She says the beast ripped him apart, and she's been trying to find his shade. Shade goes to the Underworld. To travel there, they have to find an Ancient One to get past the gatekeeper. Quentin assures Alice that he loved her. Julia discovers the Ancient One is a dragon.

In Fillory, Eliot is driving Margo crazy with wedding prep. He wants people to like him. He even turns to Baylor for help. He thinks he's making progress, but Josh discovers a plot to kill the royals at the wedding. Margo sends a counter spell. Eliot's happy she's saving the day again. But he noticed Fen's acting weird. Margo plays it off, but when she talks to Fen, she sees the fairies, too. Margo explains the deal. Fen orders her to fix it. She tries to tell Eliot what Margo did, but a fairy kidnaps her.

Penny begins his job for the library. Kady tags along in the hopes of finding a book on killing gods. She's told one doesn't exist. But when they follow the trail to the holder of an overdue book, Harriet, she casts a spell to try and gain access to the Poison Room. The librarian explains to Penny that's where they keep the books filled with knowledge deemed too dangerous. Harriet lets Kady know there's a book called The Art of Killing Gods located there.