Quick recap
Ten years after the trilogy, Lyra is 20, studies at St Sophia's College and keeps fighting with Pan, who thinks she has lost her imagination. Pan witnesses a murder by the river, and the victim was carrying samples of a rose oil tied to Dust. Malcolm Polstead, now a scholar, looks into the case. One day Pan leaves a note and goes: he has gone to find Lyra's imagination. She sets off across Europe after him while the Magisterium grows stronger and attacks rose growers in the East. Malcolm heads for Central Asia. Olivier Bonneville hunts Lyra with an alethiometer. The book ends with Lyra still far from Pan and the Magisterium ready to push east.
No spoilersOpens once you mark the title as seen.