On a Saturday evening, a ragged dog trails Elizabeth from a deli to her home. Calvin spots them, feels a powerful premonition—“Elizabeth Zott, you’re going to change the world”—and helps bathe the dog. They try to find an owner but fail; the dog stays and is named Six-Thirty.

The narrative reveals Six-Thirty’s past: a Camp Pendleton bomb-sniffer trainee who failed due to fear of explosions and was abandoned by his handler. Intelligent and eager to please, Six-Thirty quickly learns commands and accompanies Elizabeth and Calvin to Hastings. When Miss Frask objects, Calvin’s stature silences the complaint. Six-Thirty maps the campus and grows protective of Elizabeth, while Elizabeth insists he sleep by their bed, recognizing his trauma.

At home, Elizabeth treats cooking as applied chemistry, quantifying reactions in a notebook and explaining techniques—even to Six-Thirty. Calvin exercises to Jack LaLanne and, inspired, proposes teaching Elizabeth to row. Elizabeth resists, blurting that women don’t row, then, stung by her own words, agrees to try.

Before dawn, they go to the boathouse. Calvin ergs in the middle of the floor until coxswain Sam whips him into a brutal “power twenty,” confirming Calvin’s legend. Calvin introduces Elizabeth as his new pair partner, startling the crew. Elizabeth learns women’s teams exist; Sam says he sees her potential. As the men shove off into fog and rain, Elizabeth’s path toward rowing—and defying expectations—begins.