Four months after the fall of Terminus, Randu shares the same feeling of despair as the rest of Haven and tells Ebling Mis to bring Bayta, Toran, and Magnifico to Trantor in search of information on the Second Foundation.
Captain Han Pritcher has spent the last 4 months on Terminus, working with the underground resistance, posing as a skilled nuclear worker, all in service of finding an opportunity to assassinate The Mule. When he finally gets his chance to sneak into the former mayor's office, it’s not the Mule that awaits him, rather the viceroy who was aware of his plan all along and insists that Pritcher, like himself, will follow the Mule one way or another.
The crew of Bayta is detained by a ship from the previously unknown Kingdom of Filia. Magnifico says that he swears that he saw Pritcher aboard the ship and theorizes that he must have escaped and is trying to evade the Mule, which is why he didn’t make himself known.
The crew stops at a planet close to Trantor called Neotrantor that’s ruled by Dagobert IX, an elderly man who is easily manipulated, primarily by his son and by a powerful landowner named Commason. While the crew gets permission from Dagobert IX to go to Trantor, they’re imprisoned by Commason and Dagobert X, who has sinister plans for Bayta. Magnifico takes exception to Dagobert X’s plans and uses his visi-sonar to play a song that ultimately kills Dagobert X. The crew flees and makes their way to Trantor.
Once they’re at the University on Trantor, one of few spots that was not destroyed in the Great Sack, Ebling Mis gets to work in his search for the Second Foundation and works tirelessly day and night despite his rapidly failing health.
They’re met at the University by Han Pritcher, who is now a colonel in the service of the Mule, however he’s there just to let them know the nature of the Mule’s mutation.. He has the ability to manipulate people’s emotions, which is how he was able to so easily conquer the Foundation and gain allies in such a short amount of time. He assures that the Mule knows of their endeavor and warns them of its futility.
Undeterred, Ebling Mis, having already discovered the nature of the Mule’s mutation on his own, continues his work to discover the secret location of the Second Foundation. On his deathbed he is convinced that the Second Foundation is the key to defeating the Mule and is ready to reveal the location to Bayta, Toran, and Magnifico, but before he can, Bayta takes out her blaster and kills Mis.
Toran initially believes that Bayta has been won over by the Mule, but that is the opposite of the truth. Bayta had figured out that The Mule had been with them the entire time, posing as his court jester, Magnifico.
Magnifico, or the Mule, tells them that he had been emotionally manipulating Toran to misdirect him from the truth and Mis to make him work himself to death, but because of Bayta’s sincere liking of Magnifico, he wanted to keep that natural feeling, but ultimately it led to his downfall. Undeterred, The Mule lets Bayta and Toran go, convinced that he can find another way to find and defeat the Second Foundation before they can defeat him.