Mr. Masters

The story opens with Julian Masters, a widowed judge in London, visiting the grave of his late wife, Alina. Despite his wealth, two children, and professional success, Julian describes himself as "barely surviving, holding on by a thread" (xvi). He manages his emotional numbness through visits to a high-end brothel called Madison's, where he uses the alias "Mr. Smith."

Brielle Johnston, a 25-year-old Australian, arrives in London with her best friend Emerson for a yearlong working holiday. She has lied on her resume about nanny experience and expects to work for a widowed woman. At the airport, she discovers her employer is Julian Masters, a cold, immaculately dressed man in his late thirties who lives in a mansion estate. He introduces her to his children: Samuel, an affectionate eight-year-old, and Willow, a hostile 16-year-old. That first night, Brielle spies on Julian through the glass corridor connecting her apartment to the main house and sees him take a Polaroid photo of her from the fridge, touch himself while looking at it, and carry it upstairs.

Brielle's first days are catastrophic. She oversleeps and fails to wake the children for school, lies about it, and gets caught. She enters Julian's bathroom after going upstairs to check on sleepwalking Samuel, and he catches her sniffing his cologne. Willow openly insults her and tells her to leave. Janine, the family's cook, tells Brielle that Julian has employed nine nannies in two years, that his relationship with Willow is strained because she reminds him of Alina, and that Alina died in a car accident.

Julian moves to fire Brielle, but over glasses of scotch one evening, their conversation turns personal. She promises total honesty, and their charged exchange reveals mutual attraction. He grants her 21 days to prove herself. After a Saturday night out, Brielle returns home drunk and flirts with Julian in his kitchen. The next morning, he berates her in the garage, telling her "the position of being a hooker, on your back, in my bed, is unavailable" (81). Devastated, Brielle formally resigns, telling Julian he makes her feel "cheap and stupid" (98).

Julian comes to her room that evening and admits the children are the happiest he has seen them in a long time. He confesses he lashed out because he was "tempted to be Julian...for just one night" (97) and asks her to stay. Brielle reveals she is actually an engineer who designs prosthetic limbs and hearing aids, a disclosure that visibly shifts his respect for her. They agree on a new framework: When she calls him "Julian," he will know she wants friendship, and he will call her "Bree."

Brielle bonds with the children, taking them to a country club, letting Willow drive the golf buggy, and teaching them to have fun outside their rigid routine. She accidentally hits Julian with the golf cart, and Willow defends Brielle for the first time. Brielle teaches Willow to cook, and when Julian's mother, Frances, arrives to find them in the middle of a food fight, Frances is charmed. Frances becomes an important ally but warns Brielle that Julian breaks things off whenever a woman falls in love with him.

The attraction between Julian and Brielle escalates. During a late-night phone call from his business trip, he admits he is attracted to her. He then sends a formal email invitation to Scarfes Bar at the Rosewood London with the dress code "Slutty." At the bar, Julian offers Brielle access to his body but warns her to "protect yourself, because I can't protect you from me" (136). They have sex for the first time in the hotel suite. Afterward, he tenderly washes and dresses her, gives her a limitless credit card, then reverts to cold formality on the drive home.

Their Thursday hotel meetings continue with costumes and role-play, while Julian maintains strict emotional distance at home. When he takes Brielle to a fundraiser, a colleague named Anna arrives, and Julian drops Brielle's hand, ignores her for about an hour, and introduces her as "just our nanny." Brielle storms out. They reconcile after a Saturday soccer game where Brielle overhears a bully tell Willow that her "mother probably fucking killed herself to get away from you" (152). Brielle confronts the girls. Julian, who has been chatting with the bully's mother, sides against Willow without hearing the full story. Brielle takes the children to McDonald's without him. Julian later apologizes, and Brielle pushes him to engage more meaningfully with his daughter.

As Julian begins sleeping in Brielle's room each night, the emotional walls crumble. He reveals that he married Alina at 22 after she became pregnant, never loved her, and she developed an alcohol addiction. On the day he told her he was filing for divorce, she drove drunk into a tree at 130 miles per hour. For Brielle's birthday, Julian takes her to Rome, where he tells her he lied when he said he had never been in love: "Because I'm in love with you" (326). She confesses the same.

Back in London, a fracture emerges. Julian flatly refuses to consider marriage or more children and books a vasectomy without telling Brielle. She confronts him at the courthouse, and their argument is their most painful yet. Separately, Brielle suspects Willow may be gay after observing her closeness with Lola, an 18-year-old friend. Willow confirms this privately and begs Brielle not to tell Julian.

The breaking point comes when Brielle enters a gay nightclub to check on something for Willow, and police conduct an identification raid. Willow, who followed Brielle inside, is detained as underage. Julian is called to collect his daughter, and Willow tells him she thinks she is gay. Julian blames Brielle for keeping the secret and tells her she is "not her mother" and that Willow "will never be your daughter" (388). Brielle moves out and continues only as a daytime nanny.

They endure two months apart. Julian visits the brothel but stops before anything happens, unable to go through with it. He begins seeing a therapist twice a week. He tells Willow he does not care whether she ends up with a man or a woman, only that the person loves her as much as he does. Willow urges him not to let Brielle walk away.

Julian sends one last email invitation to Room 612 with the dress code "Ears," signaling he wants to talk. Brielle arrives prepared to surrender her demands, telling him she just wants him. Julian drops to one knee and proposes with a diamond ring, telling her she will be "my wife" and "the mother of our children" (410). She accepts. On his wedding day, Julian visits Alina's grave one final time with Spencer and Sebastian, his closest friends, thanking Alina for his children. The ceremony takes place with Willow and Emerson beside Brielle, and Spencer, Sebastian, and Samuel beside Julian. In the epilogue, set years later, Julian and Brielle have three additional sons, for a total of five children. Willow is 21 and thriving. Julian still sends weekly invitations for Thursday nights at Room 612, their arrangement now a cherished ritual within a loving marriage.