Ellis photographs two boys sitting beside a handmade 'two children for sale' sign on a porch.

Lily finds Ellis's photograph in the darkroom and selects it for editor Trimble's Monday review.

Trimble assigns Ellis a feature article to interview the family behind the children-for-sale sign.

Ellis's only photograph of the original boys is ruined, forcing him to return to Laurel Township for a replacement.

Ellis photographs Ruby and Calvin Dillard as stand-ins for his story, completing the article under false pretenses.

Ellis's fabricated article publishes and readers flood the newspaper with gifts and sympathy for the pictured family.

Ellis accepts a reporting position at the New York Herald Tribune and leaves Philadelphia.

Lily tracks Ellis to a New York supper club to deliver a letter about the Dillards, and he insults her.

Ellis visits the Dillard house and a mailman tells him the children were outright sold.

Geraldine Dillard reveals she sold Ruby and Calvin out of fear and illness and never once spent the money.

Lily interviews Sylvia Millstone and notices only photos of girls on the mantlepiece, realizing Calvin is not there.

Ellis meets mob boss Max Trevino, explains the situation, and Max orders Ruby returned the next morning.

Ellis and Lily find Calvin alone and chained inside a barn on the Gantry farm and break him free.

Sylvia shoots both Ellis and Geraldine when Ellis steps in to stop Sylvia from taking Ruby away.

The doctor announces Ellis and Geraldine will recover, and Ellis and Lily share a kiss in the hospital.

Ellis Reed, a Society-pages reporter hungry for a big break, photographs two boys beside a handmade sign advertising children for sale. When his original photo is ruined, he substitutes the Dillard children in a faked setup, and the published story becomes a national sensation. His success earns him a coveted job in New York, but months later he discovers the Dillard children were actually sold to a banker named Millstone as a result of his article. Ellis and secretary Lily Palmer team up to track down the children, uncovering that Calvin has been separated from his sister Ruby and hidden away in terrible conditions. Their investigation pulls them through a web of grief, deception, and mob connections before a violent confrontation at the Millstone home finally brings the story to a close.

Ellis's lie and the chain of events it sets in motion.

Lily and Ellis meet in the park and she encourages him to write the story from a personal angle.

Ellis visits his parents for the first time since his article published; his father leaves the dinner table in anger.

Lily learns Samuel has a fever; Clayton overhears her phone call and discovers her secret about having a son.

Herald Tribune colleagues trick Ellis with a false tip about a gambling ship, wasting three days of his time.

Ellis overhears Irish mob members at a bar and proposes a deal trading tips for front-page stories.

Ellis takes his parents to a fashionable supper club to show off his success; he and Jim clash bitterly.

Ellis arrives at Lily's Delaware home to apologize, meets Samuel, and joins the Palmer family for a tense dinner.

Ellis and Lily drive to Laurel Township and learn that depot worker Walter Gale saw the children leave with a banker.

Walter describes the soft-spoken California banker who paid a large sum and arranged the children's train tickets.

Ellis stakes out the Millstone bank in Hoboken, follows Alfred home, and peers through the window to see Ruby inside.

A police officer hired by Alfred Millstone arrests Ellis outside the Millstone home.

Alfred Millstone visits Ellis in jail; Sylvia produces a forged letter and threatens Ellis with false charges.

Housekeeper Claire follows Lily home and reveals that Sylvia paid her to take Calvin to a children's home.

Calvin slowly approaches Geraldine at Ellis's apartment and tells his mother that he loves her.

Clayton arrives at the hospital after the shooting and Lily ends their relationship; he accepts gracefully and leaves.

While the main plot follows the Dillard case, a parallel layer of the story tracks the personal relationships and investigative steps that make the resolution possible. Ellis and Lily form an unlikely partnership through small but significant moments — a lunch-break conversation, a rain-soaked overnight stay, a shared drive through rural Pennsylvania. Ellis's professional compromises in New York, including a deal with Irish mobsters, reveal how far he drifts from the honest reporter he wants to be. Meanwhile, the investigation produces a steady trail of witnesses and leads, from the train depot clerk Walter to the Millstone household, before arriving at the harrowing discovery of Calvin's fate. The secondary characters — Clayton, Geraldine, Calvin, and Jim Reed — each play crucial roles in shaping how the story ends.

The relationships and discoveries that keep the investigation moving.

Ellis drives away from the Dillard house telling himself the car's engine noise drowns out his conscience.

Ellis's article spreads across newspapers nationwide, yet he cannot shake the feeling that he sold his integrity.

Ellis's boss Walker orders a follow-up story on the Dillard children, not knowing the original article was fabricated.

Ellis's mother Myrna visits unexpectedly and explains the real reason Jim Reed holds deep resentment toward newspaper reporters.

Lily calls the Dearborn Sanitorium and is falsely told that Geraldine Dillard has died.

Lily pitches the Lindbergh kidnapping story to Trimble and publicly admits for the first time that she is a mother.

Lily spots Geraldine walking into the Examiner building, revealing that reports of her death were false.

Ellis learns the Millstone couple lost their daughter Victoria in a car accident two years before buying the Dillard children.

Ellis notices from Dutch's newspaper clippings that Ruby is physically identical in appearance to the Millstones' deceased daughter Victoria.

Geraldine nurses Samuel's fever down; Ellis tells Lily her guilt over Samuel is undeserved, and they share their first kiss.

Walker warns Ellis that his Millstone investigation is connected to powerful Italian mob boss Giovanni Trevino.

Trimble agrees to give Lily her own column about single parents after she persists past his repeated dismissals.

Ellis tells his father he is sorry the wrong son died; Jim breaks down and confesses his guilt over Henry's death.

Lily visits the Warren County children's home but director Lowell tells her Calvin has already been placed with a family.

Lily's mother tells her she has only ever wanted great things for her, giving Lily peace about her choices.

Beneath the main events of the Dillard investigation runs a current of discoveries and personal reckonings that determine the shape of the story's ending. Ellis and Lily each carry hidden burdens — his guilt over fabricating the story and his strained relationship with his father, her shame over keeping Samuel — and the novel's turning points are the moments when those burdens are confronted rather than avoided. Key revelations emerge one by one: Geraldine is not dead, Ruby was chosen because she looked exactly like a dead girl, and Calvin has been sold into labor. The resolution requires not just finding the children but Ellis and his father finally speaking honestly to each other, and Lily finally claiming her ambitions and her motherhood without apology. Each turning point removes another obstacle standing between the characters and what they most need.