At the Tri-Alpha house, Chad receives a blackmail message from someone claiming to know his secret and immediately suspects the protagonist.

Jade is seen at her home, and it is revealed that she is Tybalt’s mother. She is angry with her husband Professor Stephen for cheating on her and they fight violently. Stephen admits to having cheated on her with three women, at least some of which are college students. It is revealed that Stephen tried to have sex with Isabella but was rejected by her.

Derek and the protagonist are at a mall chatting about hell week, with Derek wearing a dildo helmet. In a flashback to the hell week announcement in the DIK house, Tommy goes over the tasks in the pledge board, among them wearing a dildo helmet 24/7 and drinking 100 beers. Derek and the protagonist discuss how are they going to complete the tasks, and he tells Derek that Jade flirted with him.

At the HOT house pool, Quinn is with HOTs Sarah, Melanie, and Riona, as well as the new pledges Camila, Mona, and Maya, as she reveals to them that Maya is Derek’s sister. Quinn talks about the “free tuition” arrangement which Camila is already taking a part in and she invites Maya and Mona to also join in, but tells them to stop talking and hides the subject when Sage arrives with HOTs Elena, Heather, and Arieth. Sage announces the “scavenger hunt”, the list of tasks that HOT pledges must perform to join the sorority. Maya asks Sage to switch mothers as she isn’t getting along with her current mother Quinn, but is rejected and Quinn becomes even meaner to her.

The protagonist tries to call Josy and receives no answer, when he is suddenly ambushed by Chad who thinks that he’s the one blackmailing him and threatens him. He almost faints but is found by Jill who takes him to her room in the ANO mansion. The protagonist refuses to go to a hospital and tells Jill that he has no money, unlike her. He naps in her bed. When he wakes up, they talk and Jill kisses him goodnight, and the protagonist tells her about his mother. They talk about Jill being rich and him being poor, as Jill expresses her dislike for the rich and empty lifestyle. Jill rubs against the protagonist’s hand in her sleep. Meanwhile, Cathy the math teacher is seen in her bath touching herself while looking at men on her phone.

The next day at school, the protagonist is called to the counselor’s office, after the events of last night were told to the school staff by Jill. In the office, he joins Jill, Cathy, Jade, and her husband Stephen, and they invite Chad to come in. While Stephen and Chad are busy talking, Jade flirts with the protagonist again. Chad admits hitting the protagonist but won’t reveal why he did so. Stephen announces that as punishment for what he’s done, Chad will no longer be the president of the Tri-Alpha fraternity, and the entire fraternity will be watched closely from now on.

Back in Maya’s dorm they discuss Quinn and the scavenger hunt tasks that Maya has to do, many of them sexually humiliating, and Maya decides not to pledge. The protagonist offers to help with some of the tasks as Maya reveals that she’s a lesbian and never had sex with a man, only with one woman, and that her sexual orientation is the reason for her issues with her father. Josy still doesn’t respond to the phone.

Maya and the protagonist watch the ANO pledges doing their “Dante Week” tasks and discuss money and goals in life. They kiss as Derek shows up and is concerned with Maya being with the protagonist, telling Maya that this isn’t like her. She tells Derek that this is easier for her and that she’s tired of fighting and being ghosted and Derek tells her to do it the right way and not like this.

Derek and the protagonist do the “gay guard catcher” Hell Week task at the mall as Tommy and Rusty are watching them, and while running away they shove Cathy and Jade, who happened to be there, out of their way. The protagonist is cornered by the security guard and Derek farts on him to get him out. Back with the DIKs at the mansion, Tommy and Rusty applaud the maggots, as Jamie reveals that he lost his phone.

Chad breaks the news of the punishment to his fraternity and shows them images of DIKs having sex with Arieth that were in the blackmail envelope that was addressed to Dawe: a selfie Rusty took while being with her, a selfie Jamie took while he and Leon were with her and a photo of Jacob having sex with her in the janitor’s room in the DIK mansion. Chad tells them that he hit the protagonist because of Dawe’s blackmail material. Anthony looks at the pictures and notes that it is unlikely the protagonist is responsible for them since Arieth looks very different in the picture with Rusty, so it was probably taken before the protagonist came to college. Chad agrees but says he wasn’t thinking clearly.

Derek and Ashley sit for lunch and the protagonist sits for lunch with Bella as Quinn sees him chatting with her. He tells Bella the story about Zoey, his only past relationship. He met Zoey in school when they were both in detention; him for hitting kids who bullied him, and Zoey for smoking in class. She became his best friend and as they grew up their relationship turned romantic. Zoey moved away recently to San Diego to pursue her dream of becoming a surfer and now has a new boyfriend. Concluding his story, the protagonist is still unsure if their relationship was just that of friends or if they were a couple. Jade and Cathy join them for lunch and, seeing the dildo helmet, realize that the protagonist and Derek were the naked men who ran past them at the mall. Jade flirts with the protagonist under the table as Stephen also joins them.

Back in class, Maya notes that Derek and Ashley seem to be getting close to each other as Cathy catches Derek taking a picture of her ass and sending it to the protagonist. Cathy gets a rush from knowing that students view her sexually and wonders why she doesn’t get that much attention from men who see her profile online. She decides to upload more revealing pictures to her profile as she exposes some of her cleavage and looks at her phone. Someone in the classroom is watching her as she does that.

Jill tells Bella that she feels bad for having told the counselors about the protagonist’s fight with Chad, revealing that she was bullied in the past as she says that this is what she would have wanted people to do for her. Bella talks with Jill about the protagonist and tells her that he’s not as bad as she initially thought and Jill can go ahead and date him if she wants. Jill is surprised that Bella recommends dating the protagonist while Tybalt is trying to win her over, and Bella tells Jill that she hates Tybalt and that the protagonist is much better than Tybalt.

Tommy and the DIKs let Derek and the protagonist know that they will be going to the strip club “The Pink Rose” this evening as they watch new students who have been on the waiting list arrive at campus. The protagonist hopes to see Josy as Tommy hopes not to. The DIKs leave when they see Lily, a stripper from The Pink Rose, arriving on campus, and rush to greet her and convince her to join the HOTs. Derek lets the protagonist know that Maya seems to have feelings for him and warns him not to hurt her.

Quinn and Riona are counting money from their illegal operations but there’s not enough. Riona blames Quinn for taking too many new girls and Quinn slaps her and shuts her up. Hoping to cover up their losses, they talk about a big order of drugs about to be made by the Tri-Alphas, the revenue of the prostitution business which now also includes Camila, and trying to sell a threesome to the protagonist. Riona expresses worry about the free tuition arrangement being expanded to Camila and now also offered to Mona and Maya, as she wonders who is spreading the rumor that it exists. Quinn says some HOTs probably can’t keep their mouth shut but dismisses her worries about it being spread.

The protagonist overhears Sage and Chad talking, with Chad asking Sage to try and talk to people who can help overturn his punishment as they will surely listen to her and Sage is reluctant to do so. Sage is dissatisfied with Chad’s lack of sexual attraction to her, as Chad kisses her on her forehead and prefers staying in a dorm instead of in her room. Chad claims that his lack of libido is the result of steroid use, and Sage responds that Arieth told her that Dawe is still attracted to her even with the steroids and they just cause him erection problems, to which Chad replies that Dawe is using birth control pills and they have different side effects than what he’s taking. Sage scolds Chad for using steroids in the first place, warning him that they’ll find out about it in the competition he’s training for. After Chad leaves, the protagonist comforts a crying Sage and plays the guitar for her and they end up having sex. Sage tells him that she’s looking for someone to be physical with but doesn’t want a serious relationship, and they decide to become friends with benefits.

The DIKs and the maggots arrive in The Pink Rose which has been reserved just for them this night. There, the protagonist meets strippers Lily, Brandi, and Rose as well as a stripper going under the stage name Envy, who signs his penis for the Hell Week task. Jacob talks with the protagonist again about how hard it was for him during his Hell Week and warns the protagonist not to drink too much lest he ends up like John Boy did when they were there as maggots, dancing around naked and almost being caught by Stanley the bouncer. In a talk with Nick, it is revealed that Nick’s maggot brother and best friend Vinny dropped out of college and that he’s depressed about it. Jamie and Leon talk about having shared a stripper on a previous visit to the club. The DIKs have a competition where the maggots are blindfolded and need to recognize strippers by feeling their breasts, during which Derek insults Envy by calling her old, to which she replies by revealing that she’s only thirty. The night goes on and the protagonist is seen drinking shots before he blacks out and wakes up the next morning naked under his bed as Josy calls.

Josy reveals that after their date she got into a fight with her dad over him and Monica and he confiscated her phone, which is why she couldn’t respond, and also that she’s been accepted to B&R and is leaving home. She asks to join his dorm but when she hears that there’s already a girl with him, she says she will just stay at a friend’s dorm. Josy promises to confront the issue with her existing relationship when she arrives, saying she won’t have a choice because her relationship is with someone from B&R. After the call the protagonist finds a note on his bed from Maya where she reveals that he insisted on sleeping under the bed and that he also did something else that is not good, but if he doesn’t remember that then it’s okay.

The protagonist goes to study in the library and Bella lets Jill know he’s there. Jill and him flirt as they are watched by Bella, who is slightly sad seeing them together. On the next table are the Tri-Betas Magnar, Ron, and Sally, and they invite Jill and the protagonist to play Dungeons and Gremlins with them. The game is aborted by Bella who sends them all away. On the way to class, the protagonist is approached by Mona and Camila who ask for his underwear for one of their scavenger hunt tasks. Derek and the protagonist prank the Tri-Alphas by pouring semen into Dawe’s protein shake, who then vomits on his girlfriend Arieth. In gender studies class, Jade continues to make moves on the protagonist, while Derek fights with Wendy the feminist on gender issues.

The protagonist breaks into the ANO mansion to spend some time with Jill. On the way to her room, he overhears Rich talking on the phone and being worried about one of his family members, and Tybalt telling the pledges that he once had a disastrous evening because the pub he went to ran out of olives. The protagonist meets Jill and they talk about her playing the piano. She plays the song that he heard her play in the auditorium and reveals that she is practicing because she is going to play this song in a college concert soon and that she has intense stage fright which is why she was anxious when the protagonist saw her playing. The protagonist takes a copy of the notes of the song. Jill also tells him that Bella changed her opinion of him and told Jill to give him a chance. Tybalt walks in and prepares to call security on the protagonist, and Jill stops him from doing so, as the protagonist turns around and asks Jill on a date while Tybalt and his are friends watching. She accepts and they exchange phone numbers.

The protagonist goes to visit Bella in her library to thank her for recommending him to Jill. Bella tries to convince herself that she has only been hanging around the protagonist for the sake of making sure he’s right for Jill, and she is flustered with thoughts about what she did with him and about previous sexual experiences that she had with some friends but stopped. It is also revealed that her husband James left home a long time ago and has not returned since. Bella scolds the nerds as the protagonist arrives and helps her with closing. They discuss Jill and end up making out again. Bella bursts into tears and stops, as the protagonist narrator reflects on the situation from the future, saying that at the time he couldn’t understand Bella and that while adultery is a big deal, if he had known then what he knows now about Bella, he wouldn’t have kissed her but would have instead called out for help.

Back at Maya’s dorm, the protagonist sees Maya’s dad leaving after he had come to check up on her. Quinn offers the protagonist to buy a threesome with her and Riona. Derek arrives looking worried and talks with Maya, after which Maya concludes that she must get that free tuition. The protagonist and Maya try to do some of the sexual tasks on Maya’s list together as Maya reveals that it’s not just about the list and that she genuinely wants to be with him. They record themselves having sex on Maya’s phone to be able to show it as proof to Quinn. When they’re done, the protagonist asks Maya to tell him why is the free tuition so important to her and tell him everything this time, but as she prepares to do so, a knock is heard on her door.

The protagonist narrator reflects again, in a monologue about the symbolic meaning of doors, as devices meant either to protect people from what’s outside, or protect something that is inside and keep it hidden. He notes that some doors are better left closed because of the repercussions of opening them.

Meanwhile, Dawe is seen at Quinn’s door saying that they need to talk, as Isabella stands at the entrance to the room behind the mysterious door, and Maya panics seeing Josy at her door. She reveals that Josy is her girlfriend.