Greta & Valdin

The novel follows siblings Valdin and Greta Vladisavljevic, who share a small Auckland apartment and narrate alternating first-person chapters. They are of Māori and Russian descent, children of Linsh, a biology professor originally from Soviet Moldova, and Betty, their Māori mother. Valdin, 29, is a former astrophysicist who quit after a breakdown and now hosts a New Zealand travel show. Greta, 25, is a comparative literature master's student and English tutor. Both are struggling with romantic disappointment as the novel opens.

Valdin discovers a missed-delivery card and anxiously retrieves the package, fearing it may be from his ex-boyfriend Xabi, who left for Argentina after Valdin's mental health deteriorated. Valdin has OCD and was formerly a selective mute, and the breakup remains a raw wound. The package turns out to be a book about fungi addressed to his father, who shares his full name. The family connection to Xabi is inescapable: Xabi is the brother of Giuseppe, who is married to Valdin's uncle Thony.

Greta is infatuated with Holly, a fellow English tutor she refers to only as "my co-worker" to conceal her feelings. When Holly casually mentions a new girlfriend during a walk across town, Greta is devastated. She travels to Wellington with Geneviève, Betty's best friend, seeking a fresh start and arranges a date through an app, but the woman never shows. Stranded at night, she is rescued by her ex-boyfriend Matthew, who observes that Greta avoids asking direct questions because she prefers the mystery of not knowing, a pattern she reluctantly recognizes.

Back in Auckland, Valdin goes out with his Russian friend Slava and recounts first meeting Xabi, describing their connection and how the relationship helped him break through his silence. He reveals he quit physics after realizing he hated his career, not Xabi, but Xabi was already gone by then. Greta's own romantic misadventures continue with a series of unsuccessful dates. She asks Linsh how he courted Betty, and he describes three years of secretly loving her while pretending indifference, then the night he finally asked her to stay with a speech comparing her to the sea he first saw in Odesa as a child.

A turning point comes when Valdin visits Thony, who, alone and high while Giuseppe is away, reveals the family's refugee history. Their grandfather Vlad organized a sham orchestra tour to smuggle the family out of Soviet Moldova when Thony was 15 and Linsh 14, partly to protect Thony, whom townspeople suspected of being gay. They traveled through Ukraine, Moscow, and Hong Kong before reaching New Zealand, where they claimed refugee status based on a document proving Vlad's mother was Jewish. Thony also reveals he cannot have children and that their mother still lives in Sochi as a literature professor. Valdin is shaken but does not share these revelations with Greta.

At a house party, Greta meets Ell (Elizabeth Alexandra Livingstone), a Scottish PhD student in biology. She asks for Ell's phone number directly, and their first date on a bench at the Viaduct goes so well they skip the play they had tickets for. They kiss, and Greta invites Ell home. When Valdin returns a night early from a work trip to Queenstown and walks in on them, he panics and leaves, spending hours at a café. Betty later reassures him, and Greta and Ell's relationship deepens.

Valdin's show secures airline sponsorship for filming in Argentina, including Buenos Aires, where Xabi lives. Valdin tells Greta he is still in love with Xabi and calls him after three days of deliberation. Xabi agrees to meet. Meanwhile, Betty reveals to Greta that before Linsh, she was in a serious relationship with a man who proposed to her in Istanbul. She declined and returned to Linsh but says the man is still "around," leaving Greta unsettled.

In Argentina, Xabi drives Valdin to his rural property, a glass-and-wood house decorated almost entirely in grey. That night, Valdin finds Xabi reading his old book. Valdin asks if Xabi is in love with him, and Xabi says yes. They kiss. The next morning, Xabi reveals he is adopting an eight-year-old boy named Ernesto from Colombia. Valdin is stunned but does not reject the news.

While Valdin extends his stay in South America, Greta faces pressures at home. Tang, the 17-year-old son of Casper, Greta and Valdin's older brother, arrives at the apartment late at night, upset. He reveals to Greta and Ell that he is in love with a boy named Plamen from Montenegro and has been experiencing intrusive thoughts and compulsive behaviors similar to Valdin's OCD. He has not told Casper because he fears his father will blame himself. Greta promises to help, and afterward tells Ell she loves her for the first time.

In Medellín, Valdin meets Ernesto at his school and learns that the boy, like Valdin himself as a child, is selectively mute. Over several days, they bond at a planetarium where Valdin shares his knowledge of astrophysics. On his last day, Valdin tells Ernesto about his own history with selective mutism. At a shop, Ernesto speaks aloud for the first time in Valdin's presence. Xabi finalizes the adoption, and when they part, Ernesto hugs Valdin and whispers "Goodbye."

Valdin's absence stretches into a month with almost no communication. Greta bakes a cake and cleans the apartment, but he does not arrive on his scheduled flight. At Betty's birthday dinner, Greta overhears a private conversation between Giuseppe and Betty that suggests a long-standing intimate connection. She flushes the toilet to avoid hearing more.

At the university, Holly corners Greta in a photocopying room, demanding she admit her feelings. Greta shouts that she does not want Holly and has a girlfriend. Holly grabs her wrist, and Greta wrenches free just as Ell arrives. Greta panics and runs home. Ell strikes Holly with a can of oven cleaner and flees with Greta's friend Rashmika. At the apartment, Ell finds Valdin sitting beside a sleeping Greta, and they switch places. The next morning, Ell reassures Greta that she loves her and wants to stay.

Valdin tells Greta he plans to ask Xabi to marry him so they can form a legal family unit allowing Xabi and Ernesto to live in New Zealand. He also reveals he quit his show after the controversial Queenstown episode, in which he confronted a golf course owner about Māori child poverty on camera, sparking a national conversation. He plans to create a new, more political show.

With two days until the wedding, Valdin has not yet proposed. Xabi arrives at the airport while the family scrambles to organize a licence, venue, food, and music. The night before, long-held secrets surface: Vlad reveals he has had romantic relationships throughout his life, Thony's marriage to Giuseppe is strained by an infidelity, and Valdin confirms to Greta what she has suspected about Giuseppe and Betty.

On the wedding day, Xabi arrives with a black eye: Giuseppe punched him the night before upon learning about the adoption. Valdin proposes in their apartment, delivering a vulnerable speech about how Xabi helped him break through selective mutism and how he wants to adopt Ernesto and build a family. Xabi says yes. The ceremony takes place in the parents' backyard, with Greta playing piano and singing. Cosmo, Giuseppe and Geneviève's previously missing son, returns from Indonesia. Ell tells Greta she has been offered a research position on Rakiura (Stewart Island) and asks Greta to come for the summer. Greta agrees.

The novel closes with Valdin's letter to Ernesto, to be opened on Ernesto's 21st birthday. He writes that he is afraid of being a parent but promises Ernesto will always be loved, signing the letter "Your father, Valdin V Vladisavljevic."