The Mayor of Terminus City, Harla Branno, is basking in a political glow, after an appearance by the holographic Hari Seldon. Five hundred years after the Foundation's beginnings, her policies have been vindicated by Seldon's Plan. However, on this day, Golan Trevize, a Councilman with an unusual intuition, questions whether the Second Foundation, which is thought to be extinct, is still controlling events. He first makes his feelings known to a fellow Councilman, Munn Li Compor, who has sold Trevize out to the Mayor. Trevize then brazenly attacks Branno's policies in a Council meeting, in which he is arrested for treason and removed. Branno was waiting for Trevize to openly challenge her, on a day when her political power was highest, and contrives a plan to remove Trevize from Terminus.