Mary Jane starts her summer nanny job at the Cone house and finds it in a state of chaotic disarray.

Dr. Richard Cone reveals to Mary Jane that a famous couple will secretly stay at the house for addiction treatment.

Mary Jane meets rock star Jimmy Bendinger and TV celebrity Sheba when they arrive at the Cone house.

Mary Jane takes charge of cooking all meals for the Cone household, gaining independence from her mother.

Jimmy admits at dinner that he used heroin that day, triggering a violent screaming fight with Sheba.

Mary Jane stays overnight at the Cone house after lying to her mother that Mrs. Cone is seriously ill.

The entire Cone household travels together to a private beach cottage for a week away.

Mary Jane and Izzy stumble upon Jimmy having sex with neighbor Beanie behind a sand dune.

Richard holds a group therapy session on the beach where every member of the household shares their deepest feelings.

The group visits Night Train Records in Baltimore, where store clerks photograph them with the celebrities.

The photo of Sheba and Jimmy appears on the newspaper's front page, and Mary Jane's parents ban her from the Cone house.

Mary Jane slips away from her parents after church and rides off briefly with Sheba, Jimmy, and Izzy.

Mary Jane tearfully says goodbye to Izzy at the Cone house as her parents wait to take her home.

Mary Jane receives a secret package at church containing a cassette of Jimmy's new song written in her honor.

The group gathers at Bonnie's new home to hear Casey Kasem announce that 'Mary Jane' has reached number one.

Mary Jane Dillard, a sheltered 14-year-old from a conservative Baltimore family, takes a summer nanny job with the eccentric and disorganized Cone household in 1975. Shortly after arriving, she learns that rock star Jimmy Bendinger and his TV star wife Sheba are secretly staying there while Jimmy undergoes addiction treatment. Mary Jane bonds deeply with the household, takes over cooking all meals, and joins the group on a week at a private beach cottage. When a newspaper photo exposes the celebrities, Mary Jane's parents forbid her from returning, tearing her away from the family she has come to love. After the summer ends, Jimmy records a song called 'Mary Jane' as a tribute and sends her a cassette recording. The song climbs to number one on the pop charts, bringing both families together in a moment of shared joy and pride.

The headline events of Mary Jane's transformative summer.

Mary Jane meets her new neighbor Beanie Jones on the street during her walk to the Cone house.

Izzy cheerfully colors a penis in a human body coloring book while Dr. Cone looks on completely unfazed.

Mr. Dillard makes antisemitic remarks at dinner, speculating that the Cones changed their name from Cohen.

Mary Jane cuts the legs off her bell-bottom pants at home to look trendier before meeting the arriving celebrities.

Jimmy compliments Mary Jane's singing voice after she spontaneously harmonizes to a Running Water record while cleaning.

Sheba and Jimmy smoke marijuana in a parked car while driving Mary Jane home, and Beanie spots them at the window.

Bonnie tells Mary Jane that her Presbyterian parents disowned her for marrying the Jewish Dr. Cone.

Jimmy breaks down crying the morning after the fight, and Mary Jane and Izzy comfort him together.

The group plays an alphabet song-naming game while reorganizing the books thrown around the living room during the fight.

The group dines at a fancy restaurant with Sheba and Jimmy in disguises and encounters Beanie at the entrance.

Sheba and Jimmy secretly attend Mary Jane's Sunday church choir performance in disguise to cheer her on.

Richard calmly frisks Jimmy to check for drugs before allowing him to take a solo walk at the beach.

Sheba takes Mary Jane shopping at a beach boutique and generously buys her several expensive new outfits.

Mary Jane credits her mother's cooking lessons in front of the Cones while making her final farewell.

Beanie tells Mrs. Dillard during a shoe shopping trip that the Cone couple is getting divorced.

Beyond the headline events, Mary Jane's summer is built from a series of smaller but meaningful moments that reveal the deep contrasts between her conservative upbringing and the chaotic warmth of the Cone household. From her first encounter with nosy neighbor Beanie Jones to discovering that her singing voice earns genuine admiration from professional musicians, Mary Jane gradually realizes how much of herself has gone unseen at home. The group's adventures, including a disguised dinner out and a spontaneous song game while reorganizing overturned bookshelves, reinforce the humor and tenderness that define life under the Cone roof. A series of quiet revelations from the adults, including Bonnie's estrangement from her own parents and Jimmy's tearful remorse after his relapse, show Mary Jane that grown-up lives are far messier than her mother pretends. By summer's end, even the gossipy neighbor Beanie becomes an unwitting witness to how thoroughly the summer has changed everyone, delivering news of the Cones' divorce to a scandalized Mrs. Dillard.

The everyday moments and relationships that shaped the summer.

Sheba immediately helps Mary Jane fix her lopsided cutoffs the moment they meet, creating an instant warm bond.

Izzy tells Mary Jane 'I love you' at bedtime, the first time anyone has ever said those words to the girl.

Beanie arrives at the Cone house with an angel food cake, probing to confirm the celebrities' identities inside.

Mary Jane challenges her father's prejudiced remarks about Black country club employees for the very first time.

Mary Jane breaks down and confesses to Dr. Richard Cone that she has been lying to her mother all summer.

Richard tells Mary Jane she was simply managing two households with different value systems, fully validating her choices.

Sheba encounters Beanie at the beach boutique and pulls Mary Jane into a dressing room to avoid being recognized.

Sheba reveals during the beach therapy session that she craves public adoration to drown out her mother's lifelong criticism.

Jimmy confesses during the beach therapy that he hates celebrity fame and uses drugs to escape unwanted public attention.

Mary Jane confesses during the beach therapy session that she fears she might be a sex addict.

Bonnie breaks down crying during the beach therapy, confessing she does not want to be a suburban doctor's wife.

Sheba's letter inside the package reveals that Jimmy stayed clean after leaving the Cone house and recorded his best album.

Mary Jane insists her reluctant mother sit and listen to the cassette recording of Jimmy's song about her.

Mrs. Dillard is moved to tears by the song and smiles at her daughter with what Mary Jane recognizes as genuine pride.

Mrs. Dillard joins Mary Jane to visit Bonnie and Izzy in their new untidy home, connecting the two families.

The deepest turning points of Mary Jane's summer are the revelations that shift her understanding of herself and everyone around her. From the moment Izzy becomes the first person ever to tell Mary Jane 'I love you,' the girl begins to recognize the emotional deprivation hidden inside her perfectly ordered home. A pivotal beach therapy session brings the summer's most startling confessions, with Sheba admitting she craves public adoration, Jimmy confessing he hates his celebrity life, Bonnie breaking down over her unfulfilled longing for something more, and Mary Jane making her own anxious confession about her emerging sexuality. Each admission is met with compassion rather than judgment, showing Mary Jane what genuine family acceptance feels like. After the summer ends, she musters the courage to insist her hostile mother sit and listen to Jimmy's cassette, an act of quiet defiance that finally earns her genuine maternal pride. The novel closes with the formerly rigid Mrs. Dillard stepping willingly into the Cones' messy new home, a small but profound sign of how far both mother and daughter have traveled.