Remain: A Supernatural Love Story

A collaborative project from best-selling author Nicholas Sparks and acclaimed filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan, Remain (2025) is a paranormal romance that blends a haunting mystery with a story of emotional connection. Sparks, known for romance novels like The Notebook, contributes the story’s emotional depth, while Shyamalan, famous for supernatural films like The Sixth Sense, infuses the novel with elements of suspense and psychological horror.

The novel follows Tate Donovan, a successful architect who experiences severe depression after his sister’s death. Seeking solitude, he rents an old house in a small Cape Cod town, only to find that he’s sharing the space with the spirit of Wren, a woman who died there two years earlier. As Tate’s initial fear gives way to a deep bond with the captivating ghost, he begins to suspect that her death wasn’t accidental and sets out to uncover the truth. As Tate investigates Wren’s past, he unravels a web of secrets that implicates several men in her life, forcing him to confront not only the dangers of the present but also the ghosts of his own past. Weaving a tense thriller into its romantic core, the novel explores several themes, including The Haunting Nature of Unresolved Trauma, The Deception Beneath Small-Town Charm, and The Redemptive Power of Love and Vulnerability.

This guide is based on the 2025 Random House edition of the novel.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide feature depictions of death, grief, graphic violence, substance use, mental illness, and suicidal ideation.

Plot Summary

Tate Collins, an architect who is struggling to cope with the recent death of his sister, Sylvia, travels to Heatherington, Cape Cod, to design a vacation home for his best friend, Oscar. He’s staying alone in a large, historic Victorian house that Oscar has rented for him. Since Sylvia’s death, Tate has been experiencing strange visual disturbances, which doctors attribute to stress.

On his first night in the house, Tate hears humming in the kitchen but finds no one there. Later, he has a vivid nightmare about his cat, Paulie, being drawn to a dark, ominous bathroom upstairs. The next morning, Tate receives the first of three posthumous video messages from Sylvia, sent by her husband, Mike. In the video, she encourages him to reconnect with people. Shaken, Tate goes downstairs and is surprised to find a woman doing yoga in the parlor. She seems to be a resident of the house, which is supposedly a bed-and-breakfast, though he was told he would be the only guest.

Tate and the woman, Wren, quickly form a connection. He opens up about his sister’s death and his recent stay in a psychiatric hospital, while Wren shares details about her difficult divorce from her husband, Griffin, and financial issues with her business partner, Nash. Their conversation is cut short as Wren abruptly vanishes when the caretaker, Louise, arrives. Louise insists that no one else is staying in the house. Over the next few days, Wren continues to intermittently appear and disappear, her form sometimes flickering or becoming translucent. She teaches Tate how to cook, and they play games, growing closer. Tate receives a second video from Sylvia, in which she recounts how she knew that her husband, Mike, was “the one,” emphasizing the importance of finding and embracing love.

Tate tells Oscar about Wren, and they begin to investigate her past. They encounter Griffin, Wren’s ex-husband, who claims that they were reconciling before her death, a story that contradicts what Wren told Tate. Oscar speaks with the local police chief, Ray Dugan, and learns that while Wren’s death was officially ruled an accidental drowning, it was initially considered suspicious. Meanwhile, Tate’s visual flickers guide him to a shed on the property where he discovers a box of Wren’s belongings. Inside, he finds a file detailing embezzlement by her business partner, Nash, and a disturbing, obsessive letter from a man named Dax. Tate and Oscar confront Nash, who becomes defensive and angry. They’re later approached by Dax’s wife, Tessa, who paints a negative picture of Wren, accusing her of being a manipulative homewrecker who pursued unavailable men, including her husband and Griffin, who was previously engaged to another woman.

Tate receives Sylvia’s final video message, in which she urges him to embrace love despite the risk of pain. That night, the first night of the local music festival and the second anniversary of Wren’s death, Tate has a strong premonition that draws him back to the house. In the upstairs bathroom, he has a terrifying vision of Wren’s murder. He sees a large, masked figure grab her, smash her head against the faucet, and, with the help of a smaller figure, hold her underwater until she drowns. He watches as the smaller figure removes Wren’s locket from her neck. Tate recognizes the locket as one he saw Louise, the caretaker, wearing. As the vision ends, Louise’s husband, Reece, appears in the hallway, attacking Tate and knocking him unconscious.

Wren’s spirit wakes Tate, warning him that the house is on fire and that Oscar, who has just arrived, is in danger. Before waking Tate, Wren saw Reece set the fire to destroy evidence and kill Tate. Tate escapes from the burning house and finds Oscar lying injured in the yard; Louise has run him down with Reece’s truck. Reece appears and attacks Tate with a crowbar, but an explosion from the house causes a large piece of debris to fall, killing Reece instantly. Louise, seeing this, grabs the crowbar and lunges at Tate, but the police arrive just in time to stop and arrest her.

Oscar later explains the motive he learned from the estate’s trustee, Aldrich. Reece, as Wren’s only surviving blood relative, stood to inherit a significant portion of the valuable property if Wren died before the trust was distributed. Louise was his accomplice. With both of them implicated, Louise pleads guilty to attempted murder.

Tate has one final, peaceful encounter with Wren’s spirit among the ruins of the house. She confirms that she can now move on and encourages him to live a full life. They profess their love for each other, and she disappears for good.

Eight months later, Tate is back in New York, recovering from his injuries and working on the plans for Oscar’s new house. He has reconnected with friends and family, including his brother-in-law, Mike, and has begun dating a woman named Rachel. While looking out his window at Central Park, he sees the spirit of a young boy. Heeding Wren’s words to “honor the gifts you’ve been given” (322), he accepts his ability and goes to help the boy.