Sephy, living with Callum's mother, Meggie, becomes increasingly fond of her daughter, Callie Rose. Callum's guard, Jack, delivers a letter written by Callum before he died, stating he never loved her and couldn't believe that Sephy was stupid enough to fall for him, and tells her to forget about him. Meggie tries to convince Sephy that Callum was forced into writing the letter by others, but Sephy believes the letter and develops postnatal depression.
She meets Jaxon, a hot-tempered man with a band, the Midges. He offers Sephy a singing part, but the Noughts are prejudiced against her because she is a Cross. In her emotional turmoil, she begins to neglect Callie Rose.
Callum's brother, Jude, blames Sephy for the terrible losses his family has suffered and is determined to destroy Sephy's life by any means necessary. He meets Cara, a Cross, and befriends her to access her money. After spending a lot of time with her, he begins to fall in love with her, despite his hatred of Crosses. Frustrated and confused with his feelings for a Cross, Jude beats her severely and runs off with a large amount of money. After Cara dies in the hospital, Jude is eventually arrested and charged with Cara's murder. He's almost guaranteed to receive the death sentence due to the wealth of evidence against him.
Sephy struggles with seeing Meggie losing the last remaining member of her family and decides to give a false alibi to Jude for Cara's death for Meggie's sake. He escapes the death penalty and only serves a few month in prison for LM membership; afterwards, he accuses Andrew of Cara's murder in addition to being a government informer; Andrew is soon shot dead by the LM. Despite Sephy saving his life, Jude still holds a grudge against her and plots revenge.
Sephy's life begins to fall apart, as the Crosses hate her for helping Jude escape the noose, and the Noughts because she didn't come to his aid sooner. While singing "Rainbow Child" to Callie Rose, she hugs her too tightly, causing the child to stop breathing. The book ends with Meggie repeatedly screaming at Sephy, "What have you done?"
