Jane finishes her decade-long second novel manuscript and immediately sends it to her literary agent.

Jane's publisher rejects her completed manuscript, calling it 'Frankensteinian' and an ungainly mishmash.

Jane emails Brett's television agent Marianne, falsely claiming Brett himself recommended she reach out.

Jane meets agent Marianne Berkowitz and pitches a comedy about a biracial 'mulatto' family.

Jane meets Black Hollywood producer Hampton Ford, who expresses enthusiasm for her biracial family comedy pitch.

Jane begins lying to Lenny, claiming her growing meetings with Hampton are research for novel revisions.

Hampton and Jane work through the night developing an episode about a biracial family adopting a Labradoodle.

Hampton visits Jane at Brett's home studio and asks to take her novel manuscript home to read.

After receiving Jane's manuscript, Hampton and his entire staff stop all communication with Jane.

Brett returns from Australia and tells Jane's family they have two weeks to vacate his house.

Brett discovers Jane and Lenny drank his entire wine collection, and the two friends argue bitterly.

Jane drives to 'Multicultural Mayberry,' finds a retirement community with a vacancy, and breaks down crying to the manager.

The retirement community manager makes an exception and agrees to rent to Jane's family.

Brett shows Jane a series document for Hampton's new show Swirl, which appears to be based on her manuscript.

Jane and Lenny buy a fixer-upper Craftsman house in 'Multicultural Mayberry' after years of financial struggle.

Jane Gibson, a biracial writer and professor, finally completes her long-awaited second novel, only for her publisher to reject it as an unsalvageable mess. Desperate for a path forward, she steals her friend Brett's idea for a television comedy about biracial life and lies her way into a meeting with producer Hampton Ford. As Jane invests more time and energy in developing the show, she increasingly deceives her husband Lenny about what she is really working on. Hampton grows demanding and erratic, eventually borrowing her novel manuscript and then cutting off all contact. When Brett returns from Australia and evicts the family, Jane must navigate the collapse of both her television dreams and her living situation. She ultimately discovers Hampton has stolen her work for his Emmy-winning show Swirl, leaving Jane to rebuild her life from scratch before eventually achieving a modest but hard-won success.

The main arc of Jane's failed literary ambitions and Hollywood betrayal.

Jane pushes her son Finn on the park swings as he describes life on 'the Finn planet.'

Jane visits her university office to retrieve a sociological article about 'mulattos' in American history.

Jane spots her colleague Kay secretly living in her campus office after losing her place on the tenure track.

Jane and Lenny celebrate her finished manuscript by opening a bottle of Brett's expensive wine and having sex.

Jane and Lenny host Ruby's birthday party at Brett's house, allowing guests to assume the home is theirs.

Ruby is found crying upstairs during her party, upset that the family cannot afford to collect more American Girl dolls.

Jane and Lenny tour a beautiful Craftsman home in 'Multicultural Mayberry' with a real estate agent.

Jane is surprised to discover that Lenny can hold a full conversation in Japanese with a fellow house-tour visitor.

Jane visits Hampton's production office and meets his polished assistant Layla and preppy office worker Topher.

Jane and Lenny spend a night at the Beverly Hills Hotel as a planned couples therapy date.

Lenny wakes early at the hotel and reads Jane's messages, confronting her about her ongoing lies.

Hampton calls Jane while high on drugs with a rambling story about a Kardashian child's birthday party, demanding she adapt it.

Lenny shows Jane his completed abstract paintings for his Tokyo solo show, which Jane privately judges as unsellable.

Jane returns to teaching with a heavy four-course load after the university demotes her from the tenure track.

Jane and Lenny adopt a Labradoodle together, mirroring a plot idea from the television show built on Jane's stolen work.

This pool follows the quieter, lived-in moments of Jane's difficult year, from her daily struggles with her neurodivergent son Finn to a disastrous birthday party where Ruby reveals the depth of the family's poverty. Jane's growing envy of wealth is on display as she and Lenny tour a house they cannot afford and later allow Brett's party guests to assume his mansion is their own. Her husband Lenny's preparations for a Tokyo solo show add a parallel professional arc to Jane's own desperate pursuit of success. A couples therapy date at the Beverly Hills Hotel escalates into a confrontation when Lenny discovers Jane's lies, and Hampton's increasingly unhinged behavior — including a drug-fueled late-night phone call — reveals how far Jane has been pulled off course. By the end, Jane has lost her tenure-track standing and must accept a crushing teaching load, while she and Lenny quietly embrace the very commodification they once rejected.

Everyday life and behind-the-scenes moments in Jane's turbulent year.

Jane calls psychic Wesley Brown on her sister's recommendation and is told she will soon meet her future husband.

Jane meets Lenny at a Brooklyn party and actively pursues him despite him being there with another woman.

Jane cuts up a sociological article about 'mulattos' and pastes its excerpts directly into her novel manuscript.

While touring the Craftsman house, Jane looks in the bedroom mirror and temporarily cannot see her own reflection.

Jane's literary agent Honor calls to report the publisher's rejection, suggesting Jane hurt herself by writing about race again.

Jane notices Brett's television agent's business card on his studio desk and decides to email her with a pitch.

Jane opens her first pitch meeting with agent Marianne by boldly declaring that 'the novel is dead.'

Hampton shows Jane a photo of his pale redheaded daughter and speculates that his family line will eventually become entirely white.

Jane dreams she is having sex with Brett and wakes feeling he was 'from the same land she was from.'

Jane drives to Hampton's Amalfi Drive mansion and watches through the window as he celebrates with his team and a network executive.

Brett reveals he had been trying to call Jane to tell her about his divorce and needed her emotional support.

Lenny discovers Jane's secret notebooks about the television show she has been secretly developing and storms out of the house.

Brett tells Jane he loves her when she arrives at his house to collect her family's forgotten belongings.

Jane consults a lawyer about suing Hampton but is told she has no contract or paper trail to support a case.

Jane watches Swirl in the retirement home common room, and the elderly residents refuse to believe she contributed to the show.

This pool traces the pivotal decisions and discoveries that shape Jane's arc, beginning with the psychic's prophecy that sets her marriage in motion and her first act of self-deception in pursuing Lenny. A seemingly small act — cutting up a research article for her novel — foreshadows Jane's willingness to reassemble other people's material for her own purposes. The publisher's rejection triggers a chain of moral compromises: Jane co-opts Brett's premise and then renounces her own literary values in her very first pitch meeting. Her growing obsession with Hampton's world, including spying on his mansion, and her suppressed feelings for Brett reveal the emotional costs of her choices. When Lenny discovers her secret notebooks and Brett confesses his love, Jane's carefully constructed web of deceptions collapses entirely. The pool ends with Jane sitting anonymously in a retirement home watching a show built on her stolen ideas, unable to claim any credit for the life she once imagined she would have.

The key decisions and discoveries that define Jane's choices and their consequences.