On the second day of the fire, Thomas joins the mass exodus to the comparative safety of Moorfields, leaving the girls there while he returns to find Sarah, unaware that Denton has imprisoned her as a possible Catholic sympathizer. She is saved from being raped by Vincent, a murderer who sailed with her husband, who he is certain is dead, before Denton releases her to steal an incriminating red box from Hanford, keeping her son David as hostage. Alarmed by the speed and growing danger of the fire, Samuel Pepys persuades King Charles to defy his fawning ministers and demolish blocks of houses to halt the fire's progress while Elizabeth Pepys discovers her husband's infidelity.
