Jane accepts a social work position serving impoverished families in Grace County despite having no prior field experience.

Jane shadows Charlotte Werkman and visits the Hart family for the first time, meeting Ivy, Nonnie, William, and Mary Ella.

Jane learns Mary Ella was secretly sterilized and that Charlotte has already begun a petition to sterilize Ivy as well.

Charlotte is seriously injured crossing a rickety bridge and Jane takes over her caseload, including the Hart and Jordan families.

Jane meets privately with Ivy near the tobacco barn, asking about her family in an effort to earn Ivy's trust.

After Lita Jordan comments that Ivy looks heavier, Jane confronts Ivy directly and discovers she is pregnant.

Jane reluctantly completes the sterilization petition for Ivy and the state grants its approval for the surgery.

Jane tells Mary Ella the truth about her secret sterilization, and the teenager is completely devastated by the news.

William is hospitalized after swallowing Nonnie's diabetes medication and is subsequently placed into foster care.

Mary Ella throws herself in front of Davison Gardiner's truck and dies by suicide.

Charlotte fires Jane for insubordination after Jane informs Ivy about the planned sterilization surgery.

Jane hides Ivy at her home while Robert is away at a conference, hoping to delay the surgery.

Ivy goes into labor at Jane's home and Jane's mother successfully delivers Ivy's baby girl.

Police arrive at Jane's home, remove baby Mary from Ivy's care, and handcuff Jane in her driveway.

Brenna reunites Jane with Ivy at a coffee shop on the way to a eugenics survivors reparations hearing.

Jane Forrester takes a social work job in Grace County and is assigned to the impoverished Hart family, where she meets teenager Ivy Hart and learns that the state has already secretly sterilized Ivy's older sister Mary Ella. As Jane grows closer to the family, Ivy's hidden pregnancy is discovered, and the state moves swiftly to approve a sterilization petition for Ivy as well. Jane violates professional protocol by informing Mary Ella of her sterilization and later telling Ivy the truth about the planned surgery, actions that cost Jane her job. After Mary Ella's suicide and William's removal to foster care, Jane makes a desperate final move by hiding Ivy at her home so she can give birth before being sterilized. The plan falls apart when police discover Ivy and remove the baby, but Ivy escapes with Henry Allen, ultimately building a life in California and reuniting with Jane decades later at a eugenics reparations hearing.

The major events driving Jane and Ivy's story from beginning to end.

Jane's doctor refuses to prescribe birth control pills without the permission of her fiancé Robert.

Ivy sneaks out at midnight to meet Henry Allen, who spreads out a book of California photographs and dreams aloud of escape.

Jane and Robert honeymoon in Hawaii, where Robert agrees to let Jane try her social work job.

Charlotte and Jane visit Lita Jordan on the Gardiner farm and learn that Lita voluntarily chose sterilization.

Nurse Ann visits the Hart home, examines William, and gives Ivy contraception that Ivy secretly refuses to use.

Ivy and Henry Allen are discovered together after the barn he was supposed to check catches fire.

Jane and Robert attend a country club ball where Robert dismisses her career and her peers react with open hostility.

Jane takes the Hart sisters and William on an outing to the beach, during which Ivy suffers an epileptic episode.

William wanders to a creek alone during a farm-wide search and is safely found by Lita's son Devil.

Ivy secretly meets Henry Allen and tells him she is pregnant; he vows to find a way to marry her.

Nurse Ann examines Ivy and determines she is five to six months pregnant, alarming Nonnie.

Robert discovers Jane has been secretly using birth control pills and suggests the two spend time apart.

Ivy hides in Jane's closet and carves the words "Ivy and Mary was here" into the woodwork as police close in.

Jane is handcuffed outside her own home as baby Mary is carried away by the social worker Paula.

Jane and Gavin, now married, travel with Brenna to testify on behalf of eugenics survivors at a reparations hearing.

Before Jane even begins her job, her autonomy is restricted when her doctor refuses to prescribe birth control without her fiancé's permission, establishing the novel's tension between women's agency and male authority. Jane and Robert's honeymoon reveals the early cracks in their marriage, as Robert reluctantly agrees to let Jane try her new role while voicing concerns about appearances. Once Jane enters Grace County, she encounters Lita Jordan's voluntary sterilization, Ivy's secret relationship with Henry Allen, and the chain of events set off when the two are discovered together after a barn fire. William's disappearance and Ivy's confirmed pregnancy accelerate the story's central conflict, while Robert's discovery of Jane's birth control use leads to their separation. The novel closes with Ivy defiantly carving her name into a closet wall as police close in, Jane arrested outside her own home, and Jane and her second husband Gavin finally heading to testify on behalf of eugenics survivors.

Significant moments that shaped the characters and deepened the story's conflicts.

Brenna visits a Raleigh home and finds the words "Ivy and Mary was here" carved inside a bedroom closet.

Ivy recalls for Jane that her mother once attacked Mrs. Gardiner with a knife, leaving a permanent scar on her face.

Jane notices that Mary Ella closely resembles her own late sister Teresa, explaining Jane's growing personal investment in the family.

Robert tells Jane over breakfast that he approves of the eugenics program, revealing the depth of his opposition to her work.

Jane finds old eugenics pamphlets in an office cupboard and is disturbed by their similarity to Nazi rhetoric.

Jane installs a fan in the Hart home and spontaneously begins to dance, surprising the family and delighting Ivy.

Charlotte reprimands Jane for taking Ivy to the beach and demands she maintain professional objectivity with her clients.

Jane resolves that Mary Ella has the right to know she was sterilized and that Ivy must be told the truth as well.

Jane informs Ivy that she will be sterilized after giving birth, and Ivy insists Nonnie has changed her mind.

Jane's car runs out of gas on a rural road and Eli Jordan gives her a ride, hinting at a family secret.

Mr. Gardiner reveals to Jane that Percy Hart was the biological father of four of Lita Jordan's children.

Ivy confronts Jane at the social work office, blaming her for Mary Ella's death and demanding a promise about the surgery.

Eli tells Jane at Mary Ella's funeral that Davison Gardiner fathered William by exploiting Mary Ella's desperate circumstances.

Ivy stabs Paula with a fork and fights a police officer as baby Mary is forcibly removed from her arms.

Brenna shows Jane and Gavin a photo of the carved closet words as the three travel to the reparations hearing.

The novel opens with a mysterious carving discovered decades after the story's events, framing the narrative as one of survival and defiance from the very first page. As Jane enters Grace County, small but significant revelations accumulate: she notices Mary Ella's resemblance to her own dead sister, she finds eugenics pamphlets that echo Nazi rhetoric, and she watches Robert endorse the very program she is growing to oppose. The story's moral crisis deepens when Jane makes the pivotal decision to tell both Hart girls the truth about their sterilizations, a choice that accelerates her professional ruin. Shattering revelations follow about the secret family ties between the Harts and the Jordans and about Davison Gardiner's exploitation of Mary Ella, reframing his apparent generosity as predatory control. The pool ends where the novel began — with Brenna showing Jane and Gavin the photo of the carved closet words, the circle of the story closing just before the survivors go to testify.