William is born days after his three-year-old sister Caroline dies, leaving his parents emotionally withdrawn from him.

William discovers basketball at age 10 and finds his first genuine sense of belonging and connection with others.

William meets Julia Padavano in a European history seminar at Northwestern and the two begin dating.

William's knee injury before graduation requires two reconstructive surgeries, permanently ending his playing career.

Cecelia reveals she is pregnant, plans to raise the baby alone, and Rose kicks her out of the family home.

Charlie visits Cecelia in the hospital, greets newborn Izzy with 'Hello beautiful,' then collapses and dies of a heart attack.

Julia gives birth to Alice and realizes in that moment that she no longer needs William or their marriage.

William stops attending his graduate classes for a week while maintaining the daily pretense of his routine.

William tells Julia he will only hurt her and Alice, then wanders Chicago all night and attempts to drown himself in Lake Michigan.

Sylvie spots paramedics pulling William from Lake Michigan and claims to be his wife to ride in the ambulance.

William relinquishes his parental rights to Alice and agrees to divorce Julia.

Julia moves to New York City with Alice and cuts off meaningful contact with her sisters.

Sylvie and William fall in love and marry in a small ceremony at the library.

Sylvie is diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor and William calls Julia to share the news.

Alice travels to Chicago and goes outside to meet William, and the two begin talking for the first time.

The story follows William Waters from his isolated, grief-shadowed childhood to Northwestern, where Julia Padavano and her loving family draw him in. A career-ending knee injury strips William of his only identity, and despite building a life with Julia, he spirals into a devastating depression and attempts suicide. Sylvie finds him, stays by his side, and the two fall deeply in love, but this fractures the family as Julia moves to New York and severs ties. Years pass with the family divided, each rebuilding separately, until Sylvie's terminal diagnosis forces William to finally reach out to Julia. The novel closes with Alice traveling to Chicago to meet the father she believed was dead, and William opening his heart to her at last.

The headline moments that shape William and the Padavano family across generations.

Julia brings her three sisters to William's basketball game and the Padavano family unofficially adopts him.

Rose calls a family meeting before the wedding to tell William he can now call her Mom.

Charlie drives William to the wedding and shares the story of how he and Rose eloped.

Julia and William's wedding takes place, cobbled together by Rose bartering with neighbors for flowers and food.

William receives only a check from his parents with 'Congratulations' on the memo line after his devastating knee injury.

At Charlie's funeral, strangers come forward with stories of his quiet generosity, revealing a richer life than his family imagined.

Rose tells Sylvie to leave and announces she is moving to Florida, effectively dispersing what remains of the family.

Arash visits William in the hospital and offers him a job as a resident advisor with a dorm room.

Julia takes a position with Professor Cooper in New York City, telling only Emeline before she departs.

Julia tells five-year-old Alice that her father died in a car accident.

Alice's teacher calls a meeting with Julia after Alice delivers a graphic class presentation on automobile accidents.

William gets a job as a physical therapist with the Chicago Bulls, finding purpose through basketball again.

Emeline and Josie buy the house next to Cecelia's and knock down the fence between them, creating the super-duplex.

Cecelia paints a mural including both Caroline's and Alice's faces side by side, forcing William to confront the children he shut out.

Rose arrives at the family gathering after Sylvie's death and Izzy steps forward to address her grandmother for the first time.

Beneath the main plot lies a rich layer of secondary events that shape every character's journey through the decades. The Padavano family folds William into their world through small but meaningful acts of welcome, while Rose's rigid expectations splinter the household one member at a time. Charlie's funeral and Rose's departure for Florida force the remaining siblings to reconfigure their lives without the anchor of their family home. Julia's decisions in New York — including her lie to Alice about William's death — cast a long shadow that Alice slowly begins to unravel through her own quiet investigations. By the novel's end, the gathering after Sylvie's death draws every estranged character back to Chicago, where even the most stubborn walls begin to come down.

The supporting moments and family consequences that fill out the full story.

William fractures his kneecap in high school and, sidelined from basketball, first begins to contemplate death.

William proposes to Julia and accepts her planned path of becoming a history professor over any dream of his own.

Cecelia tells Sylvie she is pregnant on the morning of Julia's wedding, knowing the news will change everything.

Julia secretly asks Sylvie to evaluate William's manuscript, worried about his career and their financial future.

Sylvie reads William's manuscript and recognizes his deep inner struggle with identity, seeing him in an entirely new light.

William and Sylvie sit under the stars and she seems to reveal him to himself; frightened, he ends the conversation.

Julia goes into labor at the airport at the exact moment Rose boards her plane for Florida.

Sylvie organizes an all-night search across Chicago with Kent and William's basketball teammates to find the missing William.

William wakes in the hospital and, when Sylvie asks if she should stop visiting, asks her to stay.

William dictates his list of secrets to Sylvie, including that he once had a sister, for the first time ever.

Inspired by William's new honesty, Emeline comes out to her sisters as a lesbian and names her feelings for Josie.

Emeline visits Julia in New York and reveals that Sylvie and William are in a romantic relationship.

Alice searches Julia's closet and discovers photographs of the Padavano family, intensifying her questions about her hidden history.

Julia tells Alice the truth: her father is alive, was never dead, and is now married to the dying Sylvie.

Julia returns to Chicago and surprises Sylvie at the library, beginning the sisters' long-awaited reconciliation before Sylvie's death.

Beneath the novel's events lie the precise moments of revelation and decision that alter every character's course. William's first brush with suicidal thinking in high school, and his later surrender to Julia's plans, quietly establish the emotional crisis that defines his adult life. Sylvie's reading of William's manuscript is the first moment she truly sees him, and their conversation under the stars marks the beginning of a love neither intended. After William's suicide attempt, his willingness to finally share his deepest secrets — including the existence of his dead sister — becomes the turning point in his recovery and his honesty ripples outward, unlocking secrets in others. Julia's long-delayed confession to Alice, and Alice's own searches for answers, form the final act of truth-telling that dismantles the family's architecture of silence. The quiet reconciliation between Julia and Sylvie in a Chicago library is the emotional resolution the entire novel has been building toward.

The pivotal decisions, discoveries, and emotional shifts that redirect every character's life.