Carly brings Parker to the coffee shop to spend some time with Jack before Hal picks him up. Hal is taking the boy for an unspecified period of time. Jack tells Carly he is meeting with Jessica Griffin to begin divorce papers. Carly requests a "cooling off" period, but Jack is definite. Jack and Parker have a "boys' talk."

At Cal's old place, Holden questions Jade about why she asked if Lily would be upset if she knew he was there with her. Holden tells her that under no circumstances must Lily be stressed now. He goes home to find Luke in the middle of his pasta fest, and Lucinda arrives to get Lily to accompany her to the press party for the new book, Oakdale Confidential. The women leave, and Holden remembers another errand. As soon as he leaves, Jade arrives.

Gwen and Will share the news with Casey that Lisa has hired Gwen and her old band to work in her new club. Gwen is worried that this might cause problems because she will have to be working closely with Casey, but he assures her that he is cool with that. Maddie arrives with an invitation to the press party for them all.

At the press party, Kim discusses the new book with Margo. Katie and Mike arrive, and Margo asks Katie why she is on the cover and suggests that Katie is the author. Katie denies that, and Mike is unhappy to find his name prominently mentioned in the book.

Lucinda arrives at her party but will not reveal who "Anonymous" is. The teens arrive, and Maddie sees a copy of the book and is stunned to see herself on the cover as well. Margo asks her if she wrote the book, and Mike wonders the same thing. The book mentions that Mike spent some time in prison when he was young, and he is uncomfortable about that.

Lily calls Carly and tells her that since she, too, is on the cover, she should be at the party. Jack urges her to go, and he waits for Jessica. Jess tries to talk Jack into waiting before he signs the papers, but he is determined to go through with the divorce.

At Paul's place, Paul and Emily kiss, while outside Jennifer comes by with a wedding present and finds Meg lurking by the door. Inside, Emily pushes Paul to make love, but they are distracted by Jen's knock. Paul lets her in and knows she is upset. He offers to drive her home, but Emily is angered by his walking out on their wedding night. Paul promises only to be gone a short while and takes Jen out. Emily grabs her coat and leaves after him.

Dusty has freed his bonds and escaped from his prison. While he is wandering in the woods, however, he missteps and lands in an animal trap. While he is screaming for help, Emily finds him.

Back at the party, Carly arrives and approaches Gwen and apologizes for blowing her off the day before. Lucinda gets on the microphone and says she knows everyone wants to know who the real author of the book is. She begins to introduce "Anonymous."

At the book party, Lucinda announces that she doesn't know who wrote Oakdale Confidential, and she asks the author to step forward. When nobody does, speculations fly. Margo thinks Katie wrote it, Mike thinks Maddie wrote it to get back at him and Jack accuses Carly of spreading their lives all over town. Margo and Kim guess that Maddie's research at WOAK was for the book. As Maddie is telling Mike she couldn't have written it because she doesn't even know everyone in town, Kim comes over and congratulates her, mentioning the months she spent watching archival footage. Katie convinces an angry Mike to go home. Maddie gets coy with Casey and implies that she did write it. Elsewhere around the room, Emma tells Lily that Jack moved to the farm and Carly continues to fight for her marriage with Jack, who tells her that he will love her until the day he dies, but can't live with "them" anymore. He goes to the bar and starts drinking scotch where Lily find him and tells him she supports a cooling off period, that it's probably good for him, but she knows he doesn't want to live without Carly. He agrees that he doesn't want to, but says he has to. In the lobby, Gwen finds Carly in tears and offers to drive her home. They go to Java where Gwen tells her that she knows Jack will come back - there's too much love for him not to. Carly notices her ring and wants to hear all about the wedding. Back at the party, after reading flattering things about herself, Margo tells Maddie that she won't stop her and Casey from seeing each other. Casey is excited, but Maddie is angry with him - she accuses him of goading her into admitting she wrote the book. When he asks her point blank if she did she only says he should read it and find out. Meanwhile, back at home, Katie is trying to calm Mike down. She tries to convince him that the book is fiction and won't hurt his construction business. He wonders how Maddie knew about his history and asks Katie if she told her. Katie asks him to forget about the book.

Paul goes up to Meg's room with the keys they found on Emily. He doesn't want to give them to her in case Emily looks for them, so Meg makes a wax imprint. Paul tells her he's sorry she had to see him carrying on with Emily and asks her if she's jealous. She tells him if he wants Emily he has her blessing. He assures her that he only married Emily to find Dusty and that anything he does is to reach that goal. He tells Meg that Emily isn't who he wants to be with and tries to kiss her, but she pulls away and tells him he should go. He leaves the original keys in her room so she runs downstairs to meet him.

While Paul is with Meg, Emily goes to the cabin and finds Dusty on the ground outside. He shows her his leg and passes out. She drags him back into the cabin and duct tapes him to a chair. He promises not to name her if she lets him go but she says she can't trust him. He tries to turn up the pressure telling her that this is all going to come crashing down around her without his help, but she tapes his mouth shut and leaves. She calls the apartment and when Paul doesn't answer she goes to the Lakeview to look for him. She arrives just in time to overhear Paul telling Meg that he won't do anything he doesn't have to. She arrives back at the apartment just after he does and tries to trap him about Meg. He says he didn't see her and only wanted to be back with his wife. He tries to kiss Emily but she pulls away and tells him she's going to take an aspirin and go to bed.

At the library, Gwen tires to discuss Carly and Parker with her husband. Will is busy studying and isn't listening. Gwen gets his attention and he tells her to invite Carly over. However, when the subject turns to 'family', Will tells his wife his mother is trouble. Gwen leaves to go meet Casey.

Lily comes home to find Jade eating in the living room and starting a pedicure. Jade tells Lily there is no food in the house. Lily tells Jade she needs to do something about her finances. Jade asks to borrow money. Lily says no, that Jade needs a job. Jade says she looked but has had no luck. Lily tells Jade she found her a job, and she is starting today. Lily takes Jade to the library. Luke arrives at the library and Lily asks him to give Jade a ride home, when she's finished working. Jade is angry and thinks Luke set her up. Jade sees Will and asks if he's the guy the killed Rose. Will becomes upset. Luke rushes over and apologizes. Will tells him to keep Jade away from him. Will leaves the library. Jade is still upset and wants to know if Holden knows about her job. Luke tells her his father will never side with Jade over Lily.

Casey and Gwen discuss music. Barbara sees them talking and starts thanking Lisa (rather loudly on her cell phone) for giving Gwen the job. Gwen goes over to her and asks if she is trying to set her up to go jail or perhaps end her marriage. Barbara says she just wanted to help. Gwen tells Casey she won't take the job. Casey leaves and Barbara and Gwen start discussing Will. Gwen will do anything to make Will happy. Barbara says this makes her happy. Gwen thanks Barbara for helping her when Will walks in. He is extremely angry.

Mike hides his copy of 'Oakdale Confidential' when Katie comes downstairs. She tries go get him to go back upstairs with her. He instead talks her into going to planning the wedding. Katie leaves to meet Nancy. Nick comes out of the kitchen; Mike wanted him to wait until Katie left. Mike is worried about the book. Nick and Mike wonder who wrote the book. (At the library Katie and Nancy discuss who may have written the book.) Nick tells Mike he should find out who wrote the book, but later tells him he may end up in trouble. Katie walks in and wants to know what the trouble might be. Nick covers and says they're discussing baseball. Katie goes upstairs. Later, Mike sits alone on the couch reading the book. He throws the book as Katie comes down the stairs.

Meg gets the key delivered. She phones her mother to come over. She asks Emma if she knows what kind of key it is. Emma says it looks like it belongs to a pad lock that holds chains. Emma wants to know what's going on. Meg tells her it involves Dusty. Emma wants her daughter to stay out of it. Meg get cheeky and Emma reminds her who she's speaking to. Meg apologizes and tells her mama, she'll be the first to know if she learns anything about Dusty. Emma doesn't believe her. Emma leaves and Meg calls Paul.

Paul makes breakfast for Emily. Emily emerges from the bedroom and is headed out. They start arguing and she tries to leave, but Paul won't let her. Emily wants to know if he's afraid she'll hurt Meg. She tells him she saw them together last night. Paul said he bumped into her when he took Jennifer home. Emily doesn't believe him. He tells her he will phone a lawyer for an annulment. She stops him. She wants to be his wife. Paul pictures Meg and starts kissing Emily passionately. When Emily takes his shirt off, she sees his bullet wound. She begins to cry. Paul tells her he deserved it. He wants them to be together and to honest with one another. They kiss and make love. Emily rests her head on Paul's chest and asks him about happiness. He tells her, she'll get what she deserves. While he is getting dressed in the other room, Emily picks up his vibrating cell phone. When, Paul enters the room, she tells him Meg is calling.

Jack stops by the house to give Carly the separation papers, admitting that he misses her. A newly hopeful Carly messes with the hot water heater, then calls Jack and alerts him that they have a domestic emergency.... Jack arrives to find Carly in a wet and clingy T-shirt and their basement full of hot and sexy steam. Nature takes its course. Mike refuses to tell Katie what "Oakdale Confidential" has to do with a secret in his past, and confesses that it could be an impediment to their wedding. Mike realizes that Katie is the author! Katie says she was going to confess all at the book party, but then Mike got so mad. A furious Mike reveals that right after he got out of prison years ago, he met a woman who handed him a hot bag of rubies and split. Now with the book talking about Mike's criminal past.... Katie assures him they'll fix everything. She asks Mike what he did with the rubies. Mike admits that he buried them. In the basement of what is now Carly's house. Despite having made love, Emily is still pressing Paul on his connection to Meg, and Paul swears he'll get a restraining order against Nurse Snyder. He rushes to Meg, who guesses that he slept with Emily, but Paul insists that they have more important things to talk about. Meg needs to get out of town and away from Emily. Meanwhile, Emily tells Henry she needs to get rid of Meg - permanently. Henry tries to talk her out of it, admitting that Emily has become his closest friend, and if she were in the slammer, he'd miss her.... Resolved, Emily goes to see Dusty. Even though she knows Barbara was behind it, Gwen is still eager to take the job at Lisa's club. Will shows her how Barbara set them up, but, seeing how disappointed Gwen is at having to quit, encourages her to go ahead and take the job, anyway.

Emily makes Dusty take off his clothes and put on some clean clothes, then she takes his dirty clothes. Dusty tries to tell Emily that Paul is setting her up for his murder, but Emily angrily tells Dusty he has no idea what he's talking about. Emily tapes his mouth shut again after chaining him back to his chair, and she leaves.

Mike tells Katie that since her book has been published, it's possible the woman who gave him the suitcase full of rubies years ago (or an accomplice of hers) will show up now, looking for them. He tells her he put them in a wall in Carly and Jack's house, which is where he lived as a kid. He wants to go to the police with what he knows. Katie suggests that instead, he go to Carly's house and dig up the jewels, then repair the wall, and give the jewels to the police with an anonymous note saying they need to be returned to their rightful owner. Mike doesn't want Katie to be involved in this, but she insists, and together, they go to Carly's house.

As Jack and Carly are about to kiss, Sage drops the valve that Carly took off the hot water heater, and when Jack finds it, he realizes that Carly set up the "accident" just to get him over to the house. Carly tells Jack that he's the only one who knows how hard she's fought to get to this point where she has a family and a man whom she loves do much, and she tells him it wasn't a lie when she said "forever" on their wedding day. Jack says things have changed, but Carly tells him if he keeps pushing, he'll ultimately push too far, and there will be no going back, and she asks him if that's what he really wants. He tells her it's too late, that they've both been pushed too far, and he asks her to please sign the separation papers; then he takes Sage to have her spend the night with him at Emma's. Carly breaks down after they leave, and Katie shows up, asking if she can come in. Carly tells her no and closes the door in her face. Katie persists and gets Carly to agree to go have coffee with her because it concerns Mike; after they leave, Mike goes into the house and down to the basement, where he begins tearing up the wall. Katie invites Carly to the wedding for Mike's sake; Carly agrees to go but angrily tells Katie that she will never be her friend, that because of what she did, Jack has left her. Katie tells Carly that she and Jack will get back together one day, but Carly tells her that what Katie broke can't be fixed. She tells Katie never to come to her house again and rushes out, with Katie following after she fails to reach Mike on his cell phone. When they get to Carly's place, Katie tries to distract her by apologizing for having caused her so much trouble in her marriage, but Carly hears a pounding noise from downstairs and wonders what it is. In the basement, Mike, oblivious to their return, has broken through the wall and found a body.

Meg puts the brakes on Paul's sexual advances but admits she has trouble resisting him. He tells her why he likes her, and she reciprocates, and then he tells her that although it's the last thing he saw coming, he has fallen in love with her. She says she has fallen in love with him, too. Paul warns Meg that Emily really has it out for her and says he'll protect her at all costs. Meg says they both need to look out for each other.

Emily meets up with Henry and tells him she needs him to help her get rid of Meg, but she assures him that Meg won't be hurt or killed if Henry helps her with her plan. She then gives Henry a bag (which unbeknownst to Henry contains Dusty's bloody clothing) and has him break into Meg's car and put the bag in it, then call Meg and ask her to meet him at the old mill, because he needs to warn her about what Emily is planning. Meg agrees to meet Henry at the mill, but on her way there, she is pulled over by the police. An officer tells Meg someone called and reported she was driving erratically; he ultimately searches her car, with her permission, and after finding the bag of bloody clothes, he arrests her and takes her to the police station.

Paul leaves Meg and goes to the police station, where he tells Jack he needs to get a restraining order against Meg. Jack figures out that that means either Paul has decided Emily is more useful to him now or Emily is jealous and Paul is trying to convince her that he's not involved with Meg, even though everyone else can clearly see that he is. Jack gives Paul the restraining order anyway, saying the best thing for Meg right now would be to be forced to stay away from Paul. Emily arrives at the police station to check on Paul and the restraining order, and she is kissing Paul when the cops bring Meg into the station in handcuffs. Paul says he'll go find out what's up, but Emily tells him not to worry about it.