Charles Trask beats his brother Adam unconscious and later returns with a hatchet, driven by rage over their father's favoritism.

Cyrus Trask forces his gentle son Adam to enlist in the cavalry while keeping the more violent Charles home on the farm.

Adam Trask returns to the family farm in Connecticut after years away and discovers his father left a large inheritance.

Adam and Charles discover a badly battered young woman named Cathy on the steps of their Connecticut farmhouse.

Adam Trask marries Cathy at the county seat and moves with her to California to buy farmland and start a new life.

Adam hires a Chinese cook named Lee and enlists Samuel Hamilton to help develop his newly purchased Salinas Valley ranch.

Cathy shoots Adam in the shoulder and abandons her newborn sons to work at a brothel in the nearby city of Salinas.

Samuel Hamilton confronts a grief-stricken Adam Trask about neglecting to give names to his twin infant sons.

Lee, Adam, and Samuel discuss the biblical story of Cain and Abel and settle on the names Caleb and Aron for the twins.

Samuel Hamilton tells Adam on a final visit that his estranged wife Cathy now runs the most depraved brothel in Salinas.

Adam visits Cathy at her brothel after Samuel's funeral, and she claims that his brother Charles actually fathered the twins.

Adam Trask's refrigerated lettuce transport venture collapses, leaving the family financially ruined and the community gossiping.

Cal presents Adam with money earned from wartime bean speculation to replace his losses, but Adam rejects the gift in shame.

Cal takes Aron to Kate's brothel to meet their mother; a shattered Aron drops out of college and enlists in the army.

A paralyzed and dying Adam Trask forgives his son Cal and whispers his final word: 'timshel.'

East of Eden follows two generations of the Trask family, beginning with the violent rivalry between half-brothers Adam and Charles in Connecticut. Adam escapes to the army and eventually settles in California's Salinas Valley with a mysterious new wife named Cathy, whose betrayal leaves him broken and their twin sons largely without parents. A generation later the second pair of brothers mirrors the first, as Cal struggles for his father's love while living in Aron's shadow. Cal's desperate attempt to win Adam's approval backfires catastrophically, triggering a chain of events that destroys Aron. The saga reaches its resolution when a dying Adam forgives Cal and grants him the freedom to choose his own path.

The Trask family's most defining moments from Connecticut to California.

Cyrus Trask's deeply religious first wife kills herself after he returns from the Civil War with a venereal disease.

Adam Trask serves five years in the cavalry helping clear the West of Indian tribes, purposely missing shots because fighting disgusts him.

Cathy Ames kills her parents by setting fire to their Massachusetts home, then disappears without falling under suspicion.

A brothel owner named Mr. Edwards beats Cathy nearly to death after discovering she burned down her parents' home.

After arriving in California, Adam discovers that Cathy nearly bled to death from a botched self-abortion attempt.

Samuel Hamilton delivers Cathy's twin boys while she bites his hand with ferocity and afterward refuses to hold the babies.

Deputy Horace Quinn investigates Adam's shooting and quietly confirms that a woman matching Cathy's description is working at a Salinas brothel.

Cathy, now calling herself Kate, wins the trust of her employer Faye and slowly poisons her to death to inherit the brothel.

Cal discovers his mother is still alive by secretly listening to a conversation between Adam and Lee.

Samuel Hamilton's favorite daughter Una dies young in Oregon, permanently destroying Samuel's cheerful outlook on life.

Lee leaves the Trask family to pursue his dream of opening a San Francisco bookstore but returns within six days, too lonely to stay.

Cal tracks Cathy's daily movements until she confronts him; he reveals he is her son and they speak privately in her office.

Hamilton siblings Dessie and Tom reunite on the family farm; Dessie dies of an illness and a grief-stricken Tom kills himself.

Adam Trask is appointed to the local draft board and agonizes over selecting young men who will likely die in the war.

Cathy writes a will leaving her brothel to Aron Trask, then drinks morphine to end her own life.

Behind the main Trask story lies a web of events that shaped every character's fate. Cathy Ames's history as a predator, culminating in her parents' murder and her near-fatal beating by Mr. Edwards, explains how she arrived at the Trask doorstep in ruins. Meanwhile, Adam's years of drifting after the army reveal his passive nature, and the Hamilton family's quiet tragedies — particularly the deaths of Una, Dessie, and Tom — underscore the novel's themes of loss and choice. Cathy's calculated murder of Faye and her manipulation of those around her establish the danger she poses to the Trask family long after she has left them. Cal's secret discovery that his mother is alive sets the stage for the collision to come, while Adam's torment on the local draft board deepens the moral stakes of the final act.

The hidden scenes that built the world of East of Eden.

Cyrus Trask privately reveals to Adam that he loves him more than Charles, explaining why he has always treated the two boys differently.

A farming accident leaves Charles Trask with a permanent dark scar on his forehead, causing him to withdraw from people even further.

Cathy secretly slips into Charles Trask's bedroom and sleeps with him the night before she and Adam leave for California.

Lee reveals to Samuel Hamilton that he was born in America but pretends to have a Chinese accent to survive in a racist society.

Cathy tells Adam on the night the ranch is settled that she will leave him the moment the opportunity presents itself.

After confronting Cathy at her brothel, Adam returns home feeling free of his obsession for the first time and orders an automobile.

Charles Trask dies in Connecticut and his will leaves a large inheritance to be split equally between Adam and Cathy.

Abra Bacon tells Aron Trask at school that she overheard her parents say his mother might still be alive.

Cal takes a nighttime walk with an older family acquaintance who leads him to Kate's brothel for the first time.

Cal confesses to Lee that he fears Cathy's evil lives inside him; Lee insists Cal has the power to choose his own path.

Cal approaches Will Hamilton with a plan to profit from rising wartime bean prices and the two agree to go into business together.

Aron returns home for Thanksgiving and quietly confides to Cal that he wants to leave Stanford and not go back.

After Adam rejects his gift, Cal burns the money in grief while Lee forces him to acknowledge the harm he did to Aron.

Abra tells Cal she stopped loving Aron when she realized he would never accept the world as it truly is.

Lee begs a paralyzed Adam to grant his son Cal forgiveness and a blessing before Adam suffers his final stroke.

East of Eden turns on moments of revelation and choice that echo through generations. Early disclosures — Cyrus's secret favoritism, Cathy's affair with Charles, Lee's hidden American identity — establish a world where concealed truths carry enormous destructive power. The philosophical heart of the novel emerges when Lee uncovers the Hebrew word 'timshel,' asserting that every person may choose between good and evil rather than being destined for one or the other. As Cal grows up, his first visit to his mother's brothel and his fear that her evil lives inside him force a reckoning with his own nature that Lee and Abra help him survive. The final cluster of revelations — Aron's secret desire to leave Stanford, Abra's confession of love for Cal, Adam's belated blessing — converge in the novel's devastating and ultimately hopeful conclusion.