It's Different This Time

June Wood, a 32-year-old actress of Filipino and mixed heritage living in Los Angeles, learns that her TV show Swindlers has been canceled. Her agent, Theo, urges her to return to theater in New York, but June resists. She has not been back in five years and has private reasons for avoiding the city. When an accountant named Mara Davis emails requesting an in-person meeting about legal documents pertaining to 74 Perry Street, the West Village brownstone where June once lived, she reluctantly books a flight, spending nearly her entire savings.

At Mara's office in Tribeca, Adam Harper walks in. Adam is June's former roommate, someone she shared the brownstone with for six years and has not spoken to since she abruptly left New York. Mara reveals that their former landlord, Stanley Hill, has died of Alzheimer's and left the brownstone to Adam and June through his estate plan. The property is appraised at approximately $6.2 million. A deposit and a follow-up meeting on October 23 are required to finalize ownership; Adam pays the full deposit when June cannot afford her share. Mara tells them they may stay at the house during the processing period.

The novel alternates between the present-day timeline and flashbacks spanning 11 years. In the earliest flashback, 21-year-old June, a recent Columbia theater graduate working at a West Village bookshop, discovers the brownstone through her best friend, Chloe Patel. By coincidence, Adam, a 23-year-old culinary school student, applies for the same apartment. June impulsively proposes they become roommates, on one firm condition: Nothing romantic can ever happen between them.

Over the next several years, they build a deep friendship while pursuing their respective careers. Adam dates casually but never brings women home. June lands her first paid role in an Off-Broadway production of The Mousetrap and eventually books the lead role of Mimi in a Broadway revival of Rent. When Adam's mother, Audrey, is diagnosed with stage four lung cancer, June accompanies him to his family home on Long Island, bonding with his father, Ford, and his teenage sister, Sarah. Audrey embraces June as family, and Sarah dubs her an honorary Harper.

Their physical attraction simmers throughout these years. During a conversation about the future, Adam tells June he wants children and the kind of family his parents have; June says she does not, having never had a model for family life. One evening, after years of tension, they kiss passionately. Adam asks if she truly wants this, warning there is no going back. June hesitates and confesses she has met an actor named Liam Dawson. Hurt, Adam withdraws and begins dating Riley, a painter, while June starts seeing Liam.

June's career deteriorates as well. Her director replaces her as lead in Rent due to declining performance. At a double date at a roller rink, June watches Adam with Riley and a child and sees the family Adam always wanted, one she believes she cannot provide given her ambivalence about motherhood. She buys a one-way ticket to Los Angeles, visits Sarah to say goodbye without telling Adam, and sends him a text saying she is not coming back. She blocks his number and erases him from her life.

In the present day, June and Adam settle into uneasy cohabitation at Perry Street. June assumes Adam is involved with Kelsey, his general manager at Alden, after seeing a suggestive text on his phone. Gradually, the walls between them crack. June reconnects with Chloe, who now lives in Connecticut with her wife, Lucia, and their toddler son, Teddy. She learns that Adam owns Alden, one of New York's hottest restaurants, and a meeting with Dan Sackler, the director casting a Les Misérables revival, rekindles her passion for the stage.

Over the following weeks, they grow closer. Adam clarifies that Kelsey is his general manager and he is not dating anyone. June auditions for Les Mis, and at the Manhattan for Theater Gala, Dan offers her the role of Éponine. That night, June and Adam sleep together for the first time. They confess their love, discuss keeping the house, and enjoy a blissful week together. Theo also presents a competing film offer from A24 that would conflict with the Broadway schedule.

Then June visits Adam's apartment and discovers a framed Polaroid of Adam and Riley in front of the Eiffel Tower, with Riley wearing an engagement ring. Devastated that Adam never told her he was engaged, June confronts him over dinner. The conversation escalates into a painful argument about their entire history. Adam reveals he stayed at Perry Street for five months after June left, hoping she would return. When Adam admits Riley ended the engagement, June feels confirmed in her worst fear: She was his second choice. Adam packs his things and leaves.

On the day of the meeting with Mara, June learns Adam signed his paperwork the previous day and forfeited his ownership, making her the sole owner of the $6.2 million property. She returns to Los Angeles. Chloe points out that Adam essentially gave June $6 million, the opposite of retaliation. June tells Theo she wants Les Mis over the film and moves back to New York, settling into Perry Street permanently. She calls her mother to invite her to the show, but her mother declines. June accepts she has gotten everything she can from this relationship.

At a restaurant near Perry Street, June runs into Riley, who reveals something June never knew: Two years after June left, Adam flew to Los Angeles to see her before his wedding but saw June and Liam entering her building and left without making contact. Riley ended the engagement because she realized Adam was in love with someone else. June sprints across the city to Alden and finds Adam.

Walking through the cold streets of SoHo, they finally lay everything bare. Adam confesses he could never replicate with anyone what he felt with June. June tells him she left not because she did not love him, but because she was afraid she was not good enough. Adam says it will always be her. Echoing her words from 11 years earlier, June proposes they live together.

On opening night of Les Misérables, June performs "On My Own" to a packed theater with Adam, Ford, Sarah, Chloe, Lucia, and Teddy in the audience. Dan reveals that Adam first mentioned June's talent at Alden, planting the seed for her casting. Theo reports the A24 film collapsed, confirming June made the right choice. Adam tells June that Mara has finalized new paperwork: They are officially homeowners together.

An epilogue set six years later finds them married and packing up the brownstone. Adam has opened a restaurant called Audrey's in East LA, named after his mother, and June has won a Tony Award. They discover a handwritten letter from Stanley Hill explaining he left the house to them because they loved it as much as he did and showed him kindness. Sitting on the couch eating lasagna and watching My Best Friend's Wedding, the same movie they watched over a decade earlier, June reflects that while the moment looks familiar, it is different this time.