Arthur brings home a bottle of water from one of the best, most reliable hand pumps in London. He sets the water on the table and dozes off while reading. His twin brothers come in, and one of the two boys takes a mouthful from the bottle. The next morning, he wakes up with stomach pain and diarrhea that refuses to subside until he is weakened and dehydrated, his skin turning blue before he passes away. 

Cholera is raging through the neighborhood, and a doctor named John Snow, who has been studying the disease, hypothesizes that it is spread through the water. Everyone who has contracted it has consumed water from the same hand pump. While the doctor’s hypothesis is initially rejected, over the next few months, the General Board of Health has to concede that he is right. Arthur, who reads the new scientific reports, is horrified when he realizes that he inadvertently killed his brother with the water he brought home that day.

Zaleekhah enters the dining room after her uncle, where she finds her aunt seated with Lily, Helen’s middle child. Over dinner, they discuss Zaleekhah’s recent work, and she describes how she is part of a team helping restore lost rivers.