Glory returns to her childhood home in Gilead, Iowa to care for her aging, widowed father after a failed long engagement.

Reverend Boughton receives a letter from Jack announcing his intention to visit Gilead, and eagerly awaits his son's return.

Jack arrives at the Boughton family home after being estranged from the family for twenty years.

Jack begins repairing an abandoned car in the barn and walks into town each day to send mysterious letters.

Glory purchases a television for the home after she and Jack watch civil rights protest coverage on screens displayed in a hardware store.

Jack asks Glory to stay up with him through the night to stop him from going to a bar to drink.

Jack and his father argue sharply about the murder of Emmett Till while watching the evening news on television.

Jack successfully repairs the old car and takes his father and Glory on a nostalgic drive around Gilead.

The Ames family joins the Boughtons for Sunday dinner; Jack blesses the meal with a prepared prayer and compares himself to Lazarus.

Glory discovers that Jack's letters to Della have been returned unopened and burns them all at his request.

Jack gets drunk, stuffs his clothing into the car's tailpipe in a suicide attempt, and Glory discovers and revives him.

Teddy arrives unexpectedly and reveals he has searched for Jack six times over the past twenty years.

Father grows confused, angrily confronts Jack over a lifetime of disappointments, and announces he will leave the family home to Glory.

Jack takes his father on a final drive around Gilead, says his goodbyes to Glory and their father, and leaves forever the next morning.

Della and her young son Robert arrive at the Boughton home looking for Jack; Glory promises to contact them if she hears from him.

Glory Boughton returns to her childhood home in Gilead, Iowa to care for her dying father, and the family is soon reunited with Jack, who has been estranged for twenty years. As Jack battles his alcoholism and attempts to rebuild his reputation in Gilead, the siblings grow unexpectedly close while their father's health continues to decline. Tensions between generations erupt over race and faith, and Jack's secret correspondence with a woman named Della ends in heartbreak when his letters are returned unopened. After reaching his lowest point in a suicide attempt, Jack is pulled back by Glory, and the arrival of their brother Teddy forces the family to reckon with years of silence and loss. Jack ultimately takes his father on one final drive through Gilead before leaving forever, and the novel closes with Glory meeting Jack's wife and son, who arrive too late to find him.

The core journey of Jack's return, struggle, and departure from Gilead.

As children, the Boughton siblings destroy a neighbor's alfalfa patch and are made to apologize; the neighbor's wife calls their father a hypocrite.

Jack receives birthday cards from his siblings and a mysterious card from an unknown child while anxiously awaiting mail each day.

Jack and Glory argue over Jack's past indiscretions during a game of chess until their father interrupts the confrontation.

Glory answers a phone call from a woman asking for Jack in St. Louis; Jack interrogates Glory about every detail the woman said.

Jack begins trimming and planting in the garden with Glory after their father confides that he fears the siblings are not getting along.

Father falls asleep at the breakfast table after sharing his fears about Glory and Jack; Jack carries him upstairs so Glory can rest.

Jack reveals he never actually graduated from college; Glory confesses she was never married, despite having led her family to believe she was.

Father offers Jack and Glory access to his bank account; Jack grows unnerved, believing the offer is a bribe to prevent him from stealing.

Jack takes a book by Friedrich Engels from the local library without permission; Glory discovers it and admonishes him for stealing.

Jack reads aloud from a novel about Kenya to his father, who responds that segregation may be the only answer to interracial violence.

Jack uses a religious article found in the attic to orchestrate a visit from Reverend Ames, hoping to reconcile the two old friends.

Jack asks Teddy for advice on what he can honestly say to comfort their dying father without lying outright about his own faith.

Father asks Teddy and Jack to stand together for a mental picture and makes them shake hands and promise to help one another.

Jack and Glory play checkers late at night after their father's outburst; Glory vents her frustration at being expected to inherit the family home.

Glory gives Robert a framed river picture from Jack's room as Della tells Glory they must reach their destination before nightfall.

While the main events of the novel unfold, a quieter drama plays out in the domestic rhythms of the Boughton household, revealing the family's wounds and small kindnesses. Glory and Jack slowly lower their guards through shared meals, arguments, and ordinary chores, discovering in each other an unlikely companionship rooted in loneliness. Their father's declining mind forces both siblings into caretaking roles that strain and ultimately deepen their bond. The arrival of their older brother Teddy briefly restores a sense of family wholeness, but also exposes just how fractured the Boughton children have become. By the novel's end, Glory is left alone in Gilead with the family home, carrying a tenderness for Jack's wife and son that offers a fragile sense of hope.

The private tensions, confessions, and small moments that shape life inside the Boughton house.

Glory recalls her father quietly driving to Annie Wheeler's home to offer money to her family after Jack impregnated and abandoned her.

Father asks Jack to play piano through the night, then places Jack's hand over his heart and confesses his deepest fear of losing his son.

Jack quietly tells Glory about his common-law wife Della and his hope to find work near Gilead and bring her and their family there.

Jack asks Glory how a person carries on after doing something terrible; she responds with her father's counsel about repentance and moving forward.

Jack heads to Ames's church on Sunday but is too ashamed and afraid to walk through the doors and returns home without entering.

Father privately apologizes to Jack for never having baptized Jack's deceased illegitimate daughter, believing the omission has always grieved him.

Jack successfully attends Ames's church the following Sunday but is devastated by Ames's sermon on fathers who disgracefully abandon their children.

Lila Ames interrupts the clergymen's debate about predestination to declare firmly that a person can change and everything can change.

Glory confides in her father the truth about Jack's relationship with Della; both wonder aloud together whether a child is involved.

Jack admits to Teddy that he spotted him during one of his St. Louis searches and deliberately avoided him, causing Teddy to weep.

Jack confesses to Glory he was released from prison days before their mother's funeral and spent his father's money on a new suit and alcohol.

Jack reveals that Della's father investigated his criminal past and threatened to expose him to Della unless he abandoned her completely.

Father erupts at Jack during dinner, blames him for Annie Wheeler's baby's death, and reveals that Glory once slapped Annie's father in rage.

Jack tells Glory his conversation with Reverend Ames went well, that Ames is also dying, and that he called Ames 'Papa' for the first time.

Glory daydreams about Robert returning to Gilead as an adult, imagining his arrival will answer his absent father's prayers.

Beneath the surface of daily life in the Boughton home, a series of revelations slowly dismantles the walls that Jack and Glory have built around themselves. Jack opens up to Glory about Della, his past imprisonment, and his devastating failures, while Glory confronts the way she has constructed her own faith and identity around pleasing others. Their father's fading mind strips away the careful politeness that has long protected the family from its own grief, and the weight of Annie Wheeler's dead child is finally spoken aloud. Jack's searching conversations with his father and Reverend Ames about predestination, grace, and racial equality deepen his sense of being caught between worlds. By the novel's end, Glory has buried her old habits and found a hard-won clarity, and the arrival of Della and Robert opens a door toward a more just and empathetic future she had not imagined.

The key discoveries, confessions, and moments of reckoning that reshape Jack's and Glory's understanding of themselves.