Hiding in a cave, Jamie leads a lonely life until Lallybroch is threatened by redcoats pursing the elusive Jacobite traitor. In Boston, Claire and Frank struggle to coexist in a marriage haunted by the ghost of Jamie.
Surrender opens at Lallybroch were the Captain Samuel Lewis is demanding to know the whereabouts of the Dunbonnet or Red Jamie as he believes they are one and the same. Ian feigns ignorance and is arrested for his troubles.
Meanwhile, Jamie is living in the woods near Lallybroch looking wild and unkempt with long hair and a beard. Jamie comes into the dooryard with a dead deer on his shoulders and sees Claire but it is only a mirage. Jenny turns startled and leads him into the house. It becomes evident that Jamie’s exuberant and passionate nature had dimmed with the loss of Claire.
Back in 1950s Boston, Claire wakes from a passionate dream startled. Next to her lies Frank but she keeps seeing Jamie. Later, Claire puts baby Bree in her playpen to read the paper and looks up when Brianna cries. Claire realizes Brianna turned over by herself, a month early according to Doctor Spock. Frank, whose shower was cut short because of the boiler, is also suitably impressed by Brianna. Claire and Frank share a moment but Frank goes off to check the boiler.
Back in the woods, Jamie is cleaning fish in his cave when Fergus brings him the gun he found earlier in the dove cote. He wants Jamie to teach him to shoot but Jamie tells him to put it back where he found it. Fergus accuses Jamie of being a coward but Jamie just ignores Fergus and goes on cleaning fish.
Later, Jamie comes back to the house to help Jenny with the estate ledgers but discovers her in labor. Outside, the boys (Young Jamie, Fergus and Rabbie) see a raven has landed on the house gate and Fergus runs to get the gun. He shoots and kills the raven but the shot is heard all over the area and there are Redcoats afoot.
Jamie goes to see Jenny and the baby after the birth and is holding the baby when the Redcoat burst into the house in search of the weapon. Jamie hides in another room trying to keep wee Ian quite as Captain Lewis interrogates Jenny in her bed. When Lewis asks where the baby is, Jenny tells him it died and the midwife took the body to be clean for burial. Lewis is about to insist to see the body when Mary McNab burst in with the gun and gives it to Lewis saying it was her husbands and she kept it to remember him. She shot the raven hoping to protect the baby but failed.
In the 1950s, Claire reaches out to Frank and tells him she misses her husband (I believe that means Jamie).
In the past, Fergus leads the redcoats through the forest away from Jamie’s cave but teasing them. They catch up to him and one particularly horrible officer has Fergus held down while he chops off Fergus’s hand. Another officer doesn’t want to leave him but our sword wielding fiend pulls rank and they leave Fergus. Jamie rushes out of the woods, applies a tourniquet and takes Fergus to Lallybroch.
Jamie visits Fergus who is happy Jenny is plying him with whisky and reminds Jamie that should he lose a hand in his service Jamie is to take care of him the rest of his life. Fergus jokes he is now a man of leisure. Jamie can’t help but smile at the boy.
In the future, Claire and Frank are hosting a dinner party for their neighbors. When the neighbors leave Claire and Frank chat about their guests. Claire is being flirtatious and takes of her underwear in front of Frank. Frank and Claire get hot and heavy and while in the middle of having sex Frank realizes Claire’s eyes are closed. He insists she opens them which ruins the mood. Frank then accuses Claire of being with Jamie when she’s actually with him.
Meanwhile, Jamie comes to a decision; he wants Jenny to turn him in for the reward money. Ian tells them they probably won’t hang him but imprison Jamie. Jenny refuses but Jamie convinces her.
Later, back in the cave, Mary shows up with food. Mary cuts Jamie’s hair and shaves him. Jamie tells her to return the books to Lallybroch and burn the rest. He goes out to wash up and returns to find Mary in her shift offering herself to him. Jamie thinks Jenny sent her but Mary says it doesn’t matter. Jamie tells her it won’t happen but Mary tells him she knows what he had with Claire and she’s not trying to bring that back, only give him something to hold on to. Jamie and she kiss and we assume they had sex.
Back in the future, we see Claire off to Harvard Medical School where the professor isn’t impressed he has a woman and a black man (he didn’t say that). Claire takes a seat well away from the men who show her disdain. The black student, Joe Abernathy, the professor mentioned asks to sit next to her and they are instantly friendly.
Back at Lallybroch circa the past, Jamie walks into the dooryard like he’s only just returning home. Jenny watches as the redcoats arrest him and Jamie protests that she betrayed him but Jenny calls him a traitor. Lewis gives her the gold and Jamie is hauled off to prison.
In the future, Claire walks the campus and stops to give money to a musician playing the bagpipes.
