Emerson hears from Nathaniel Hawthorne that their friend Margaret Fuller has drowned in a shipwreck off the New York coast.

Margaret Fuller arrives at Ralph Waldo Emerson's home in Concord, invited to be a companion for his pregnant wife, Lidian.

Bronson Alcott visits Margaret in Boston and offers her a teaching position at his new progressive Temple School.

Bronson's controversial book on religious topics shocks proper Boston families, who begin pulling their children from Temple School.

Bronson Alcott flees the country with his family, abandoning Margaret without paying her wages and without a job.

Margaret's translation of Goethe's Conversations is published and earns her both literary recognition and much-needed income.

Margaret launches a paid Conversations series in Boston, inviting upper-class women to discuss the great questions of life.

Waldo proposes a transcendental literary journal, Margaret agrees to serve as editor, and Bronson suggests naming it The Dial.

Margaret accepts Horace Greeley's offer to become literary editor of the New York Tribune, leaving Concord behind.

Margaret's manuscript Woman in the Nineteenth Century is published through Greeley and launches the feminist movement in the United States.

Greeley appoints Margaret as America's first full-time foreign correspondent and sends her to cover political change in Europe.

Margaret becomes separated from her chaperones and meets the nobleman Giovanni Ossoli outside St. Peter's Basilica on Holy Thursday.

Margaret and Giovanni marry in a secret ceremony in Rome, keeping the union hidden until Giovanni receives his inheritance.

French forces bombard Rome and Margaret volunteers at a hospital for the wounded, narrowly surviving a bombing attack.

Margaret, Giovanni, and their infant son Nino drown when their cargo ship strikes a sandbar off the coast of New York.

This pool traces Margaret Fuller's most pivotal life events, from her first arrival at Ralph Waldo Emerson's home in Concord to her tragic death at sea. Margaret navigates a series of professional setbacks and breakthroughs, including her unpaid work at Bronson Alcott's failed school and her hard-won literary success with a translation of Goethe. She ultimately escapes the Concord circle to take a transformative position at Horace Greeley's New York Tribune, where she publishes the landmark feminist work Woman in the Nineteenth Century. Sent to Europe as America's first foreign correspondent, she falls in love with the Italian nobleman Giovanni Ossoli, secretly marries him, and joins Rome's doomed struggle for independence. After fleeing a city under siege, the family boards a cargo ship bound for New York, only to drown in a shipwreck just yards from the American shore.

The defining milestones of Margaret Fuller's life and career.

Waldo takes Margaret on a walk by the river, and the two quickly discover they are intellectual kindred spirits.

Henry David Thoreau tells Margaret and the Alcott family about the rare Queen of the Night cactus growing in the Emerson yard.

Lidian invites Margaret for a private walk and warns her that Waldo has idealized female protegees before.

Waldo confesses his deep attraction to Margaret but insists their relationship must remain purely platonic and spiritual.

Waldo takes Margaret on a day trip to Salem, where they meet the young writer Nathaniel Hawthorne for the first time.

Margaret settles into a new life teaching sixty girls at the Green Street School in Providence, Rhode Island.

Lidian shows Margaret a note she has written mocking the transcendentalists' idealism as self-indulgent and disconnected from real charity.

After Harvard bans his own work, Waldo encourages a dejected Margaret to channel her frustration into writing a book.

Margaret is granted special permission to conduct research in Harvard's library, becoming the first woman allowed inside.

Margaret publicly confronts Edgar Allan Poe at a literary gathering after he has mocked her name and dismissed her work.

Margaret visits the elderly poet William Wordsworth at his English home and rejects his advice to withdraw from political affairs.

Margaret meets the celebrated author George Sand at a Parisian salon and is inspired by her entirely liberated, unconventional lifestyle.

Margaret splits from her chaperones the Spring family in Venice and decides to return to Rome entirely unchaperoned.

Exiled leader Giuseppe Mazzini returns to Rome and warns Margaret that the French will soon wage war on the city.

Louisa May Alcott receives news of Margaret's death and vows to carry her legacy forward for future generations of women.

This pool focuses on the significant people and experiences that influenced Margaret Fuller's development, from formative friendships to hard-won personal discoveries. Her early bond with Emerson and her tense interactions with Lidian repeatedly defined and challenged her sense of belonging, while the men of the Concord circle—Thoreau, Hawthorne, and Bronson—each played a role in shaping her ambitions. Teaching in Providence gave her real professional satisfaction, and gaining access to Harvard's library marked a quiet but historic breakthrough for women's education. Her time in Europe brought further transformative encounters, including the inspiring example of George Sand's liberated Parisian lifestyle and the frank wisdom of William Wordsworth, whose retreat into his garden she ultimately rejected. The pool closes with Louisa May Alcott's solemn vow to carry Margaret's legacy forward, giving the full arc of her life an enduring sense of purpose.

The key relationships and encounters that shaped Margaret's journey.

The Queen of the Night cactus blooms at night, and Waldo stands unusually close to Margaret throughout the viewing.

Margaret finally confronts Bronson about her missing wages, and he dismisses her concerns by blaming unpaid student tuition.

To compensate for Bronson's failure to pay her, Waldo arranges a new salaried teaching post for Margaret in Rhode Island.

Margaret's mother announces the family can no longer afford their Groton farm, and Margaret must arrange a relocation.

Waldo reveals that Nathaniel Hawthorne intends to marry the meek Sophia Peabody rather than the formidable Margaret.

Margaret discovers The Dial has not paid her after four issues; a letter arrives instead reporting Waldo's young son has died.

Margaret joins Nathaniel on a rowboat trip on the river, and they return to find Sophia and Waldo waiting on the bank.

After a series of emotional conflicts in Concord, Margaret resolves to leave the transcendental circle and build a life elsewhere.

Waldo visits Cambridge to say farewell and presents Margaret with a set of butterfly hair combs as a parting gift.

Overwhelmed by Bernini's statue of St. Teresa in a Roman church, Margaret rushes out and collides with Giovanni for the first time.

Giovanni brings Margaret to the Ossoli family chapel, revealing he vowed to his mother to bring there only his future wife.

On Christmas Eve, Margaret and Giovanni become intimate for the first time, transforming their relationship irrevocably.

Margaret discovers she is pregnant and hesitantly tells Giovanni, who responds by formally asking her to marry him.

Margaret and Giovanni travel to Rieti after fleeing Rome and are shocked to find their son Nino gravely ill and neglected.

Before boarding the ship, Giovanni tells Margaret the old family legend that any Ossoli who leaves Italy by sea will die.

This pool captures the turning-point moments that repeatedly redirected Margaret Fuller's life, from small private revelations to decisions with lasting consequences. Early disappointments—unpaid wages, a collapsing school, and men who chose conventional wives over her—forced Margaret to reckon with her place in the world and her deep longing for both independence and love. Leaving the Concord circle behind freed her to pursue bolder opportunities, and Emerson's farewell gift of butterfly combs marked a symbolic passing from one phase of her life to the next. In Rome, a chance collision with Giovanni Ossoli set off a chain of life-altering events: the discovery of his secret chapel vow, their first act of intimacy on Christmas Eve, and an unexpected pregnancy that led to a secret marriage. The pool ends with Giovanni's ominous sea legend and the couple's departure toward a fate already foreshadowed from the novel's opening pages.