Joy and Stan Delaney settle into retirement after selling their nationally respected tennis academy of four decades.

A bloodied and bruised young woman named Savannah arrives at the Delaney doorstep, claiming her boyfriend beat her.

Joy overrules Stan's suspicions and invites Savannah to stay, offering her one of the children's old bedrooms.

The Delaney family gathers for Father's Day dinner, which collapses into bitter arguments and painful confessions.

Logan watches a television documentary and recognizes that Savannah's abuse story matches a victim's account word for word.

Joy searches Savannah's room and finds a photo album confirming that Savannah is Harry Haddad's sister.

The assembled Delaney family confronts Savannah about her lies and deception, and she agrees to leave the house.

Before leaving, Savannah reveals that Joy, not Harry's father, was the one who convinced Harry Haddad to change coaches.

Christmas dinner ends in disaster when Joy hurls two of Stan's mother's china cat statues against the wall.

Joy and Stan have a fierce confrontation on Valentine's Day in which Joy finally admits she sacrificed her tennis career.

Joy impulsively agrees to join Savannah's three-week off-the-grid charity retreat and leaves the house without properly explaining her absence.

The Delaney siblings report Joy missing to police after the family housekeeper discovers Joy's phone under the bed.

A neighbor's security camera captures grainy footage of Stan struggling to load a roll of carpet into his car at night.

Police arrive at the Delaney home to arrest Stan for murder, but Joy walks through the front door at that moment.

On her flight home to Adelaide, Savannah reveals she drugged her mother and locked her in a bedroom before leaving.

Joy and Stan Delaney's quiet retirement is shattered when a young woman named Savannah arrives bloodied at their door and Joy insists on taking her in. Savannah's presence exposes decades of family tension, building toward devastating revelations at the Father's Day and Christmas gatherings. Joy discovers that Savannah is the sister of former tennis prodigy Harry Haddad, and before leaving, Savannah drops a bombshell: Joy herself convinced Harry to abandon Stan's coaching. After a fierce Valentine's Day confrontation, Joy impulsively flees with Savannah on a charity retreat, and her unexplained absence triggers a murder investigation targeting Stan. Evidence mounts against Stan until the moment police arrive to arrest him — and Joy walks through the front door. The novel closes with Savannah on a plane home to Adelaide, quietly revealing that she locked her drugged mother in a bedroom before she left, her fate unknown.

The headline events driving Joy's disappearance and the Delaney family mystery.

Joy enrolls in a memoir-writing night class during retirement, secretly wanting to examine and reorder her own life story.

Amy phones Brooke to report that a mysterious injured young woman is now living with their parents.

Logan visits his parents' home to clean the gutters and meets Savannah for the first time.

Troy and Logan drive Savannah to her upscale Sydney harbour apartment to collect her belongings.

Stan reads a newspaper announcement about Harry Haddad's tennis comeback on the same night Savannah arrives at the door.

Joy is hospitalized for two days with a urinary tract infection shortly after the Father's Day gathering.

Savannah visits Troy's apartment and extorts money from him, threatening to accuse Stan of making inappropriate advances toward her.

Logan and Amy visit Savannah's ex-boyfriend Dave, who reveals her injury was caused by stumbling over a guitar case.

Brooke uses facial recognition software on a photo of Savannah and discovers she has been using a different last name.

Detectives discover that Joy's computer search history includes multiple searches about senior divorce and calls to a plastic surgeon.

Joy sets out on Valentine's Day morning by bicycle to buy apples for Stan's favourite crumble pie but gets a flat tire.

A woman's body is discovered in remote bushland outside Sydney, briefly leading everyone to assume it is Joy.

Brooke hires a defense lawyer for Stan as police pressure against him intensifies and evidence mounts.

Logan reunites with Indira when she briefly visits Sydney and tearfully shows her an engagement ring.

Claire, Troy's remarried ex-wife, reveals she is pregnant using the frozen embryos that Troy consented to release.

Before Joy disappears, each of the Delaney siblings is quietly managing their own crisis — Brooke's failing clinic and broken marriage, Logan's loneliness after Indira leaves, and Troy's moral reckoning over frozen embryos from his failed marriage. The siblings grow increasingly suspicious of Savannah, uncovering her false name and a previous fraud involving counterfeit tennis memorabilia sold online. When Joy vanishes, detectives dig into the family's secrets, discovering Joy's searches for divorce lawyers and a plastic surgeon alongside the damning evidence of Stan's expensive car wash and the security camera footage. The investigation reaches a frightening false peak when a woman's body is found in remote bushland, briefly assumed to be Joy's. After Joy's safe return, the personal arcs of all four siblings begin to resolve: Logan proposes to Indira, Troy gains custody rights over Claire's newborn, Amy opens herself to a real relationship with Simon, and Brooke prepares to rebuild her life alone.

The secondary storylines and investigative details behind the family's unraveling.

Stan, deeply suspicious of Savannah from the start, quietly collects the couple's valuables before going to bed that first night.

Savannah rises early on Father's Day to bake brownies for Stan, inadvertently taking over Amy's long-standing family tradition.

Stan delivers a harsh and detailed assessment of each child's tennis failures and personal shortcomings at the Father's Day table.

Troy announces to the assembled family that his remarried ex-wife has asked him to release their frozen embryos to have a child.

Joy asks Savannah about her childhood over lunch, and Savannah reveals she was systematically starved by her ballet-obsessed mother.

Simon discovers that Savannah was under investigation for selling fake tennis memorabilia online under a different surname.

Joy discovers a meticulously detailed calorie-counting diary hidden in Savannah's room, suggesting she has a serious eating disorder.

Stan privately tells Joy that Savannah was the aggressor and had attempted to seduce him while Joy was hospitalized.

Savannah tells the assembled Delaney family how she sneaked into their home hungry as a child and was cruelly chased away.

Joy admits to her children that she was the one who secretly encouraged Harry Haddad to leave Stan's coaching.

Stan storms out after Savannah's bombshell revelation, trips in a pothole, and seriously injures his knee.

Joy scratches Stan's cheek as he tries to walk away on Valentine's Day; Stan controls his anger and leaves without striking her.

Savannah phones Joy on Valentine's Day and mentions the Off the Grid Challenge, prompting Joy to impulsively ask to join.

Simon notices that the number 21 appears in Joy's garbled text message and connects it to the Off the Grid Challenge.

Joy is reunited with her family after returning from the retreat, and the Delaney siblings each commit to rebuilding their broken relationships.

Beneath the surface of the Delaney household, a series of quiet turning points reshape the family's dynamic from the moment Savannah arrives. Savannah's presence triggers buried truths at every turn, from Stan's brutal public assessment of his children's tennis failings to Joy's discovery of a calorie diary and a photo album that expose Savannah's real identity. The most shattering revelation — that Joy secretly undermined Stan's greatest coaching opportunity — fractures the couple's marriage across Christmas and into Valentine's Day. On Valentine's Day, decades of unspoken sacrifice finally break free when Joy admits aloud that she gave up her own tennis career for Stan and the family. A chance phone call from Savannah leads Joy to impulsively flee on a retreat, and it is Amy's young roommate Simon who ultimately cracks the mystery with a single digital clue. The family's healing begins the moment Joy walks back through the door, with each sibling taking their first honest steps toward love and accountability.

The key decisions, confrontations, and revelations that define the Delaney family.