Jamie is reunited with Murtagh at Ardsmuir prison, where they face lack of food and medicine. When Lord John Grey becomes governor of the prison, he and Jamie (who acts as a kind of chief of the imprisoned highlanders) get off to a rocky start. Neither lets on that they remember the other until after Jamie escapes...and voluntarily returns. Lord John had had him act as an interpreter for a man found wandering the moors raving about gold. John wanted to find the Frenchman's Gold treasure as a way to regain favor and receive a new posting, but the man's words held a different meaning for Jamie. When Kerr mentions the White Witch, Jamie thinks that perhaps Claire has returned to him, prompting his escape. When he discovers that she hasn't, he returns to the prison and begs John to kill him. Later, they discuss their respective losses at Culloden and build a tentative friendship. When John starts to make romantic overtures to Jamie however, that friendship ends. When the castle is finished being reconstructed, the prisoners are transported to the colonies to finish their sentences in indentured servitude. Jamie, as a traitor, is to remain in Britain, but John arranges for him to be paroled to an English lord at his estate, giving him at least the illusion of freedom. 

As Claire continues her medical studies and establishes her career, her relationship with Frank disintegrates. Various highlights of the breakdown are highlighted: Claire's realization that he is taking advantage of the agreed upon open relationship, the appearance of his girlfriend at her graduation party, which results in him refusing to divorce her for fear of losing Bree, and ultimately an argument after Bree's graduation in which he announces his intention to leave Claire and move to England, taking Bree with him. After Frank leaves in anger, Claire is called to the hospital for a surgery. As she reassures her patients husband about the outcome, Joe approaches and tells her that Frank has been in a car accident and has died.