Just Like That

In the summer of 1968, Meryl Lee Kowalski watches news reports of American soldiers dying in Vietnam, grieving that their loved ones never said goodbye. In August, her best friend Holling Hoodhood, a boy who once gave her a rose and danced with her at a bar mitzvah, is killed in a car accident. Meryl Lee does not reach the hospital in time. Everything becomes what she calls "a Blank," an all-consuming emptiness that threatens to swallow her whole. Her parents enroll her at St. Elene's Preparatory Academy for Girls on the Maine coast, hoping a fresh start will help.

The novel alternates between Meryl Lee's story and that of Matt Coffin, a solitary boy of uncertain age who lives alone in an abandoned lobster shack near St. Elene's. One evening, Dr. Nora MacKnockater, the school's headmistress, challenges him to a stone-skipping contest on the shore. She reads Treasure Island aloud to him and invites him for suppers. Matt also works as crew on Captain Willis Hurd's lobster boat, Affliction. Late one night, he returns to his shack badly beaten, his arm broken. Captain Hurd carries him to a hospital. Matt refuses to name his attacker, and Dr. MacKnockater takes him in, beginning to teach him to read.

At St. Elene's, Meryl Lee struggles against rigid social hierarchies. Her roommate, Jennifer Hartley Truro, and Jennifer's friends Ashley Louise Higginson and Charlotte Antoinette Dobrée make her feel unwelcome. Dr. MacKnockater's opening address on Obstacles, Resolution, and Accomplishment gives Meryl Lee a flicker of hope. Mrs. Connolly, the literature teacher, rejects Meryl Lee's choice of John Steinbeck as "lewd" and "Communist," so Meryl Lee proposes The Wonderful Wizard of Oz instead. Heidi Kidder, the field hockey team's goaltender, becomes a friend. Mrs. Connolly warns Meryl Lee not to associate with Bettye Buckminster and Alethea Browning, two local girls who serve as staff and are treated dismissively by students.

Through flashbacks, Matt's past unfolds. Orphaned young, he wandered into a New York City alley where a criminal named Leonidas Shug ran a group of boys who pickpocketed and ran drugs. Matt befriended Georgie, a gentle boy who protected the smaller kids and became his closest companion. One day Matt returned from a job to find Georgie stabbed to death. He ransacked Shug's room, found a pillowcase of hundred-dollar bills, and fled. He sheltered with a Baptist pastor in New Bedford, Massachusetts, but Shug's men burned the pastor's church. Matt continued north through Portland, Maine, eventually reaching the lobster shack on the coast.

As her first semester continues, Ashley steals Meryl Lee's research report. For a recitation, Meryl Lee memorizes a passage from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz about whether brains or hearts matter more. Despite sabotage, she parts the Blank "like a thick sea fog" and delivers the passage with quiet power. When her parents cancel Thanksgiving, Dr. MacKnockater invites her for dinner. Matt thunders downstairs wielding a hatchet, believing Meryl Lee is an intruder; she grabs a walking stick and holds it to his chest until Dr. MacKnockater introduces them. Over dinner, Meryl Lee recognizes something in Matt's eyes: He has seen the Blank too.

At the Christmas Soiree, Matt and Meryl Lee dance together, but boys from the neighboring St. Giles's Preparatory Academy confront him and a fight breaks out. Dr. MacKnockater announces she will step down as headmistress after the board objected to her public opposition to the Vietnam War; Mrs. Connolly is named her successor. Over Christmas break, Meryl Lee discovers her parents are separating and realizes she was sent to St. Elene's partly to shield her from the dissolution.

In January, on the bus back to school, Meryl Lee encounters Matt, who is panicked because the driver once mentioned Shug by name. To hide his face, Matt kisses Meryl Lee. She is stunned but holds on. Afterward, they share their losses: Meryl Lee tells Matt about Holling, and Matt tells her about Georgie. Matt is enrolled at St. Elene's as the first boy in the school's history. Lieutenant Minot, the investigating officer, shows him photographs of missing boys. Matt recognizes Georgie and, with Dr. MacKnockater holding his hand, tells the lieutenant everything.

Spring brings deepening friendships. Bettye shares a letter from her brother Jonathan, who is serving in Vietnam, and Meryl Lee knits a bright yellow scarf for him. Jennifer's parents visit, and Meryl Lee learns that Jennifer's supposed Scottish boyfriend, Alden, is actually the gardener's son from Cape Cod. Meryl Lee keeps the secret; that night they cry together and become genuine friends. Charlotte asks to be included in the group. When Alethea's brother is killed in Vietnam, Meryl Lee embraces her, and their relationship transforms.

When Mrs. Connolly forms a literary society and bars Bettye because she is a staff member, Meryl Lee and her friends walk out. She learns that Mrs. Connolly's son has fled to Canada as a draft resister and that Mr. Lloyd C. Allen, a board official, has barred Mrs. Connolly from the headmistress role. Inspired by Dr. MacKnockater's lesson on the suffrage movement, Meryl Lee stages a two-night sit-in demanding the society be opened to all. It is reconstituted, open to everyone.

During a vice-presidential luncheon, Meryl Lee notices Vice President Spiro Agnew's zipper is down and, flustered, calls him "Vice President Zipper Agnew." The event carries a darker consequence: Ashley's father, attending as a Secret Service agent, is none other than Leonidas Shug. When Ashley mentions Matt, Shug recognizes the lead.

Dr. MacKnockater is found unconscious with two blows to her head. Shug emerges from the shadows, reveals he killed Georgie himself, and demands the stolen money. Meryl Lee runs for help. Captain Hurd charges Shug but is slashed and incapacitated. Matt flees upstairs, locks Shug out, and climbs with the pillowcase of money through a chute to the roof. Shug follows through the skylight. On the slick slate, Matt holds the pillowcase over the edge. Shug lunges but slips and slides off, grabbing the tearing pillowcase as hundred-dollar bills shower into the air. He plummets to the rocks below.

Lieutenant Minot rules Matt's involvement accidental. Dr. MacKnockater and Captain Hurd recover. Dr. MacKnockater names Bettye and Alethea as instructors in a new Culinary Arts Program with full scholarships and announces she will remain as headmistress. Meryl Lee's painting of a chrysanthemum that will not be smothered is hung in Greater Hoxne Hall.

At graduation, Meryl Lee asks what her Accomplishment is. Dr. MacKnockater points to the group of girls laughing together, wrapped in Jonathan's yellow scarf, and tells Meryl Lee she is the Tin Woodman: She lost her heart and found it again "in the only way that you can find it: by giving it away." Neither parent attends the ceremony.

In July, Meryl Lee returns for the wedding of Captain Hurd and Dr. MacKnockater aboard the lobster boat, rechristened The Tin Woodman. That evening, Matt and Meryl Lee sit on the roof, wrapped in an afghan, watching the moon and the tide. Matt whispers a line from a hymn: "Safe and secure from all alarms." He adds, "For now." Meryl Lee echoes, "For now." Buoys bell their ocean lullaby while waves break upon the shoreline, as they always do.