No Place Left to Hide

No Place Left to Hide is a young adult novel by American author Megan Lally that follows Brooke Goodwin, a Yale-bound prep school senior. She endures constant anonymous harassment over a tragic accident in her past that resulted in the death of her former friend, Claire Heck. Through dual timelines—one based in the present and one based on the night of the incident six months prior—a mystery plot unfolds that will determine Brooke’s fate. Lally’s work often features betrayal, secrets, and violence, in particular using unreliable narrators to drive forward the central mysteries.

No Place Left to Hide follows this trend, exploring themes of How Class and Privilege Determine Consequences, Ambition Versus Morality, and Crafting a Public Persona to Hide Secrets.

This guide uses the 2025 e-book version of the novel.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of death, child death, graphic violence, harassment, physical abuse, emotional abuse, substance use, and cursing.

Plot Summary

The story takes place in Salem, Oregon. Six months before the novel’s main plot begins, high school senior Brooke Goodwin hosts a wild party with her friends at her parents’ lake house to celebrate the last summer before senior year. Brooke confiscates the guests’ phones to stop them from revealing underage drinking at the party, a violation that would result in expulsion from their prestigious Waldorf Prep School. Her crush, Dylan Miller, arrives, and she joins him in the library to flirt. However, the moment is ruined when Brooke’s former friend and Dylan’s ex-girlfriend, Claire Heck, arrives.

Dylan slips away to avoid Claire and Brooke’s confrontation. Brooke’s friend Jena Howton arrives, and she and Brooke tell Claire to leave, as she wasn’t invited. In the past, Claire’s father worked at the same law firm as Brooke’s, and Brooke reflects on how Claire left Waldorf in shame after her father was disbarred for falsifying evidence. As onlookers gather, Claire puts on a show that garners sympathy, and they allow her to stay. 

Later, Brooke walks in on Claire and Dylan talking in the library, but they soon storm off to different parts of the house. Claire confronts Brooke, and they argue bitterly about Dylan. Claire goes to the living room and starts a game of Truth or Shot. She uses this as a way to cause strife within the party by provoking Jena’s boyfriend, Felix Agar, and his friend, Beau, into a fist fight over their romantic past with Jena.

Felix ends the fight and asks to take Brooke for a walk. Claire keeps the game going and humiliates more and more people with secrets she’s privy to, even embarrassing Brooke. Brooke tells Claire to leave, and they argue on the deck, with Claire blaming the Goodwins for her family’s strife. She insinuates that she’s stashed drugs around the lake house and intends to call the police: She wants Brooke to be expelled from school and her family’s name ruined, just like hers was. Brooke knows people are watching through the glass door but can’t hear their conversation. She decides to provoke Claire into punching her by insulting her to get Claire to leave the party.

Felix and Jena arrive and break up the fight. Claire is thrown out of the party despite insisting that Brooke is responsible for the argument. Brooke plays the victim to turn others against Claire, but she worries about the drugs Claire allegedly hid. She decides to send everyone home in case the police do come, as she likely wouldn’t get in trouble if only a few people are left at the house. Dylan, Jena, and Felix stay, and they go out the back of the lake house to drink around the fire.

As Brooke and Dylan flirt by the fire, Claire returns, asking for her phone. Meanwhile, Dylan leaves, and Felix passes out drunk in a hammock down the beach. Jena, also drunk, has vanished. Brooke is frustrated at Claire’s repeated insults and heads to her family’s boat to take it out on the lake. She finds Jena unconscious in the boat, and Claire is suddenly worried that Brooke will drive a boat while intoxicated with no boating license.

Claire tries to wrest control of the wheel from Brooke, but Brooke manages to drive the boat out. She knows Claire can’t swim and takes the boat into deeper water to frighten her. Claire manages to take the wheel from Brooke, but they hit a sand bar and are thrown out of the boat.

Brooke swims back to the boat while Claire calls for help: Claire is bleeding from a head wound and struggling to stay afloat. Instead of helping, Brooke drowns her. Afterward, Brooke drives the boat back to the dock and calls her father. He tells her how to cover up the incident and frame it as an accident caused by Jena and Claire. Their cover story is that Jena and Claire drunkenly snuck back to the lake house after Brooke drove home and took the boat out on the lake, where the accident occurred. He will use his legal connections to erase evidence of Brooke being there, and to ensure Jena faces no legal consequences.

The novel begins six months later, where the narrative purposely withholds the events from six months ago from the reader and reveals them in alternating flashback chapters titled “Before.” In the present day, Brooke impatiently awaits an acceptance or rejection letter from Yale University. Brooke is a high achiever who put a huge amount of effort into getting good grades and taking part in extracurricular activities. She would have received the application results earlier in the year, but reflects that an unspecified incident involving another girl prevented it.

Brooke hears about a party being thrown to celebrate college acceptances and worries that Jena will nag her into going. In the parking lot after school, Brooke sees her car covered with about 100 newspapers from January 7, describing a special investigation into the drowning of a local teenager. She tears them off; this harassment has been going on since the end of the investigation into Claire’s drowning. So far, her car and locker have been vandalized, and she’s being stalked.

Jena’s boyfriend, Felix, arrives and tells her it’s probably just a prank. He helps her clear the newspapers and informs Brooke that Jena wants her to attend the party. Dylan will be attending, which convinces Brooke to go.

On the way home, she receives repeated phone calls from an unlisted number. The calls come at the same time every day, and she can’t block them.

At home, Brooke waits for her Yale letter, and Jena arrives to beg her to attend the party. Brooke says she can’t, as her parents don’t like her going to parties since the accident. Finally, Brooke discovers she is accepted into Yale and celebrates. Brooke’s mother is delighted for her, and Brooke finally relents, agreeing to go to the party with Jena. As they leave for the party, Brooke’s father arrives home; he reacts coldly to the news of her college acceptance.

Jena and Brooke drive to the coast. On the way, there is a long stretch of road, where they lose their cellular signal. The party is at a beach house, and Brooke criticizes it for being small and shabby. While talking about her ambitions for Yale, she realizes that she never thought about what would happen after her acceptance; she wanted to maintain her family’s image, not plan for her future. Claire’s brother, Brandon, arrives visibly agitated. He screams at Brooke that she isn’t telling the truth about what happened at the lake house party. He is dragged off the property.

People gossip in the wake of Brandon’s outburst. Brooke is mortified, knowing that she can’t be in trouble after what happened before; though she doesn’t explain, she notes that her parents have been unforgiving. She can’t do anything else that may reflect poorly on their family, hurt her father’s bid to become a circuit judge, or damage her mother’s standing as the school’s principal. Dylan takes her for a walk, and they talk about Brandon’s previous outbursts.

After the party, Jena and Brooke drive home. Brooke has missed many calls from the unlisted number. A voicemail threatens that if she doesn’t come clean about the accident, her life will be in danger. A white Bronco starts to tailgate them.

Jena is alarmed, and despite Brooke’s best attempts to shake the Bronco, it keeps tailing her. It rams Brooke’s bumper, and Brooke speeds up. Jena sees all the missed calls on Brooke’s phone and demands an explanation, just as the number calls again. Jena answers, and the voice says that there will be consequences if Brooke doesn’t come clean—then hangs up.

The Bronco is still chasing them at a dangerously high speed. A deer runs into the road, and both cars swerve out of control and crash.

Brooke recovers from the crash and speeds on. The Bronco continues in pursuit, and Brooke gets Jena to take the wheel while she throws cans of tinned food from the back seat at the Bronco. The cans break its windshield and force it to stop. A police car pulls the girls over and Brooke switches seats with Jena before the cop arrives. They try to explain the situation, but the officer doesn’t believe them. The Bronco arrives and rams the police car, knocking the officer out as she checks Brooke’s documentation.

Jena and Brooke flee into the woods as the driver of the Bronco, a masked man in black, pursues them. Brooke and Jena become separated, and Brooke circles back to the car. The masked man, whom they assume is Claire’s brother, Brandon, attacks Brooke. Jena shows up and maces him, and the women escape, but not before seeing another masked man in the headlights and realizing they’re being trailed by two men.

While driving away, Jena reveals she is one of the people harassing Brooke. She’s in shock because her accomplices weren’t supposed to take the harassment this far, and she can’t figure out why they’re attacking her and Brooke instead of scaring her into telling the truth. Brooke is horrified, claiming that Jena was drunk, but Jena says she remembers everything from the night the boat crashed.

Brooke admits to killing Claire, but Jena only knew that Brooke was driving the boat: Jena was blamed for driving the boat that night, though she wasn’t held responsible for Claire’s death. Jena had no idea Brooke killed Claire. When Brooke realizes she’s incriminated herself, she crashes the car to try to kill Jena.

After the crash, Jena is unconscious and bleeding. Brooke looks for a way to finish killing her without leaving evidence, but while she is distracted, Jena wakes up and escapes. Later, Jena posts a recording of Brooke’s confession, leading to Brooke and her father being arrested. In the novel’s conclusion, Jena, Felix, and Dylan text about harassing Brooke. With her confession, they’re happy that justice is finally being served.