Faithful

Two years after a car accident on Route 110 on Long Island, nineteen-year-old Shelby Richmond lives in her parents' basement, consumed by guilt and depression. Her best friend, Helene Boyd, was left in a permanent coma after the crash, while Shelby survived with minor physical injuries. The accident happened because Helene, furious after being dumped by her boyfriend Chris Wilson, insisted they drive to his house to throw rocks through his window. Shelby, who always deferred to Helene's forceful personality, agreed to drive, and the car hit a patch of ice. Each February, the community honors Helene with candlelit vigils, but Shelby is never included. Helene has become famous for miraculous events: Roses bloom in her yard in winter, and visitors report healings from her touch.

Shelby has shaved her head and turned to self-harm. After the accident, she stopped speaking and was committed to a psychiatric hospital following a suicide attempt. During her three-month stay, an orderly sexually assaulted her repeatedly. When Shelby finally told her mother, Sue Richmond, Sue demanded her immediate release. While hospitalized, Shelby received a mysterious postcard with no return address: an ink sketch of a family in which the daughter has tape over her mouth, her wrists and heart painted red, with the message "Say something." Shelby began speaking again in small increments.

Shelby's only social connection is Ben Mink, a former high school outcast she buys weed from. They meet in a park, sharing joints and conversation. Ben reveals he has earned a college degree and been accepted to pharmacy school. A second postcard arrives: "Do something." One night, Ben takes Shelby to Helene's house, peers in the window, and confesses he has fallen in love with Shelby. She is stunned but follows him across the lawn rather than looking in the window herself.

Ben finds a studio apartment in Manhattan and convinces Shelby to move with him. She gets a job at a pet store in Union Square, where she befriends Maravelle Diaz, a single mother of three: thirteen-year-old Jasmine and ten-year-old twins Teddy and Dorian. Shelby notices two dogs being exploited as props in the park and steals them both, naming the French bulldog General Tso and the one-eyed dog Blinkie. Ben encourages her to enroll at Hunter College. Though he tells Shelby he loves her, she cannot reciprocate, viewing their relationship as born of mutual desperation.

Shelby babysits Maravelle's children in Queens. Quiet Dorian confides to General Tso that he cannot walk to school because a chained dog terrifies him. Shelby discovers the dog is a starving Great Pyrenees chained in a junkyard. On her last night, she cuts through the fence and frees the dog, naming him Pablo. The rescue cements her bond with the children.

Sue visits for Shelby's twenty-first birthday, revealing that Shelby's father Dan sold the family store and works at Macy's, where a woman helped him get the job, implying an affair. She advises Shelby never to stay in a loveless relationship. A postcard arrives: "See something." Soon after, Shelby witnesses a man collapse in a crosswalk and rushes to help, meeting Harper Levy, a veterinarian who also stops to assist. She is drawn to his compassion and does not mention Ben.

Shelby breaks up with Ben at his pharmacy school graduation dinner. She then begins an affair with Harper, who tells her he is married but planning to leave his wife. Their relationship centers on Monday evenings at his veterinary office, where Shelby assists with surgeries and discovers her calling. One Sunday, hoping to encounter Harper in Central Park, Shelby instead meets his wife, Sarah Levy, a painter who reveals she is pregnant. Shelby rushes to Harper's office and catches him with another woman. She ends the affair.

Now a biology major with a 3.8 GPA, Shelby quits the pet store and negotiates Maravelle's promotion to manager. Maravelle moves to Valley Stream, Long Island, partly to separate Jasmine from a dangerous ex-boyfriend named Marcus Parris. Shelby rescues a drugged kitten from a tattooed girl in Union Square and gives it to Jasmine. When Dorian reveals that Marcus has been stalking Jasmine, Shelby confronts him outside the house. Marcus punches her in the face. Maravelle's mother, Mrs. Diaz, witnesses the assault and calls 911; Marcus is arrested with a gun in his car. Shelby presses charges and obtains a restraining order.

Lonely after Harper, Shelby tries online dating. Her date turns out to be Ben Mink; both are stunned, and Ben walks out after an awkward meal. Meanwhile, Teddy falls in with Marcus's crew and is arrested for involvement in a home invasion. Shelby helps find a therapeutic boarding school and borrows money from her mother for an attorney. The judge approves placement instead of jail.

Shelby's father calls to reveal that Sue has stage four lung cancer, a diagnosis hidden from Shelby for months because the family considered her too fragile. Sue insists Shelby drive her to Helene's house, forcing Shelby behind the wheel for the first time since the accident. Afterward, Sue says Helene helped her realize how lucky she has been, that Shelby is her most precious gift. Together, they steal a poodle puppy from a pet store, which Sue names Buddy. A postcard arrives: "Love something." Sue tells Shelby her anonymous correspondent is a big man who drives a black car. Shelby stays overnight, reading fairy tales to her mother.

Sue dies and is buried in a winter funeral. Ben finds Shelby afterward and drives her to the cemetery. He reveals he is getting married to a pharmacist named Ana. A postcard waits in the mailbox: "Remember someone," beside an illustration of heaven and a tiny photo of her mother.

On Ben's wedding day, Shelby enters a tattoo parlor in the East Village. The artist, James Howard, reveals he was driving while intoxicated the night of the accident and stopped because Shelby's car blocked the road. He pulled her from the wreck, covered her with his coat, and told her to stay alive. He could not free Helene. He has been sending the postcards ever since, feeling responsible for Shelby's life. James shows her the words "Trust" and "Someone" tattooed on his wrists and returns her black butterfly charm, kept in his wallet for years. He lost his own brother to meningitis as a child and carries deep guilt. He refuses to tattoo Helene's name over Shelby's heart, arguing it would perpetuate her self-punishment, and instead inks a black butterfly. Shelby and James begin a relationship. She has been accepted to the University of California at Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

Blinkie, now very old, collapses and dies at Harper's veterinary hospital. As Shelby prepares for California, Ben visits one last time, confessing he is miserable in his marriage. Shelby tells him she loves James. For the first time in her life, Shelby opens a fortune cookie: "What is behind you is gone, what is in front of you awaits."

In the final chapter, Shelby drives to Long Island to visit Helene for the first time in over a decade. Bill Boyd, Helene's father, greets her warmly, saying he never blamed her. Shelby brushes Helene's hair, grown to the floor, which calms her. Diana Boyd, Helene's mother, tells Shelby that Sue used to visit weekly. Shelby takes Helene's hand and silently asks for forgiveness. Helene briefly holds Shelby's hand, then lets go. Shelby and James drive west with the dogs. She lies in the tall grass in a Pennsylvania field, looking at the stars, thinking of her mother and of Helene. She trusts she will find her way.