Finding Grace

Finding Grace is a work of literary fiction by Loretta Rothschild. Originally published in 2025 by St. Martin’s Press, Finding Grace is Rothschild’s debut novel. It combines elements of the romance, mystery, and domestic drama genres to tell a compelling story of love, loss, and redemption. Written from the deceased protagonist Honor Wharton’s first-person point of view, the novel follows Honor’s widower Tom Wharton’s story in the wake of his wife’s death. Tom is overcome by sorrow until he makes surprising discoveries about his new child Henry and Henry’s egg donor. An unexpected romance and a series of secrets intensify Tom’s protracted mourning process. The novel explores themes including the Emotional Complexities of Death and Grief, Finding Love After Loss, and the Moral Challenges of Owning the Truth.

This guide refers to the 2025 St. Martin’s Press hardcover edition of the novel.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of cursing, sexual content, graphic violence, pregnancy loss, suicidal ideation, substance use, and death.

Plot Summary

The narrative is told from Honor Wharton’s first-person point of view, even after her death.

Honor spends Christmas with her husband Tom Wharton and her four-year-old daughter Chloe Wharton in Paris, France. Honor and Tom have had an unofficial tradition of vacationing at the Ritz during the winter season.

Despite the festivities, Honor is miserable. She has been consumed with having a second child ever since Chloe’s birth. After losing several pregnancies and having an ovarian operation, Honor resorted to working with a surrogate named Jess and an egg donation center in Europe. Jess was recently inseminated, and Honor is desperate to know if she’s gotten pregnant with the eggs from Honor’s chosen donor. Her fixation on the matter angers Tom, causing enmity between the couple. After yet another argument, Honor leaves the hotel room with Chloe. In the lobby, a stranger sets off a bomb, killing both of them.

Over the following days and weeks, Tom struggles to orient to life without Honor and Chloe. Then one day, he gets a call from a fertility center in his hometown of London. The center informs him that Honor’s surrogate Jess is pregnant. Tom is shocked by this unexpected gift.

Four years later, Tom is raising his son Henry alone. He has quit his job in finance to be a stay-at-home father and devotes all his energy to Henry. He also spends time with his and Honor’s close friends Annie, Oliver, and Lauren.

One day, he receives a curious piece of mail, addressed to a woman named Grace Stone. He realizes Grace is Henry’s anonymous egg donor, and the fertility center accidentally sent her mail to him. Confused and excited, Tom digs through Honor’s things and finds a CD containing a recording of a donation interview with Grace.

Moved by her voice, he races to the address on her mail, which turns out to be a wine shop. She is working, and he watches her from afar. She looks strikingly similar to Honor, who sought out a donor as close to her personality, physicality, and sensibility as she could find. Tom is enamored but loses the nerve to approach her.

Tom’s friends urge him to start dating and try to set him up with a mutual friend. Tom insists he is interested in someone else. Annie senses what’s going on, as Tom told her about finding Grace. She takes Tom aside and warns him about getting further involved with Grace. Tom dismisses her concerns, convinced he knows what he is doing.

Tom returns to Grace’s wine shop, where he first saw her. He pretends he is there for Grace’s grief group, the Sunday Blues. He intends to tell Grace the truth but ultimately decides against it. Over the following days and weeks, Tom and Grace start seeing each other. They run into each other in town, attend the same parties, and go on dates. All the while, Tom considers the consequences of concealing the truth from Grace. Each time he’s on the verge of revealing that she is Henry’s egg donor, he backs down. Meanwhile, the two fall in love.

Grace starts spending time with Tom’s friends, too. Annie repeatedly urges Tom to open up to Grace, but he refuses. Meanwhile, Lauren becomes jealous of Grace’s developing relationships with both Tom and Henry. Oliver remains largely impartial, but he does find it curious that Grace is Honor’s doppelganger.

Finally, one night, Lauren gets Grace alone and tells her that Henry was born using an egg donation. Grace is shocked that Tom didn’t tell her, as she told him about retrieving and donating her own eggs in the wake of her partner Pietro’s death. She confronts Tom, demanding to know why he hasn’t been honest with her and if he is keeping other things from her. Tom insists otherwise, professes his love, and invites Grace to move in with him.

Tom and Grace’s relationship continues to develop, but Tom pulls away from his friends. All the while, he worries that Grace will somehow discover his secret. One day, he goes into his safe to retrieve her CD and the misdelivered piece of mail. Grace enters the room when he is rummaging through the safe; she finds him with Honor’s engagement ring in hand and thinks he is about to propose. Tom plays along and asks her to marry him; she accepts.

Tom’s friends are shocked that he proposed using Honor’s ring. Tom insists they keep his secret, or he will cut them out of his life. Terrified and desperate, he takes Grace and Henry on an impromptu vacation. While they’re away, Lauren calls to say she is planning an engagement party for Tom and Grace.

On the night of the party, Tom is horrified to discover the CD is missing from his safe, where he’s hidden it. He stays by Grace’s side throughout the night in fear that someone will try to give her the recording. Suddenly, someone points out that Grace’s ring is, in fact, Honor’s ring.

An embarrassed Grace demands an explanation from Tom. Then Grace’s interview starts playing on the stereo. Grace is furious and ashamed, accuses Tom of fraud, and flees. Shortly thereafter, Tom discovers that Lauren was the one who took and played the CD; she has been in love with Tom for years and thought revealing the truth to Grace would push Tom back to her.

Over the next six months, Tom and Grace don’t see or talk to each other. Meanwhile, Honor’s mother Colette takes on a larger role in Tom and Henry’s lives. She urges Tom to confront his sorrow. On Christmas Day, Grace shows up at the house. She tells Tom that Colette visited her, and she now understands his point of view. She forgives him and announces she is pregnant with their daughter. They make amends and profess their love.