Nora visits Eric in the hospital and learns he has stopped cancer treatments and plans to die at the family island home.

Station bosses confront Nora on her birthday with nude photos a former lover is using to blackmail the radio station.

A magazine editor visits Ruby and offers her $50,000 to write a tell-all exposé about Nora, and Ruby accepts.

Nora drinks heavily and drives while intoxicated, crashing her car and deepening the public scandal around her.

Ruby flies to Seattle and agrees to spend a week caring for Nora, secretly planning to gather material for her article.

Nora and Ruby arrive at the Bridge family summer house on Summer Island and struggle with their painful shared history there.

Nora persuades Ruby to cook dinner together, and a tender moment when Ruby cuts herself begins to soften their hostility.

Eric tells Dean that Ruby is on Summer Island, and Dean immediately bikes to the ferry to go see her.

Dean arrives at the Bridge summer house and reunites with Ruby face-to-face for the first time in many years.

Ruby visits her father Rand, who reveals his repeated infidelity and the confrontation that caused Nora to abandon the family.

Caroline arrives unexpectedly at the summer house and reconciles with Nora while looking through old family photo albums together.

Nora, Ruby, Dean, and Eric sail together on the Wind Lass, with a beaming Eric steering and Ruby spotting orcas.

Ruby tells Dean she loves him on the dock; the two consummate their relationship on the boat and Dean proposes marriage.

Ruby presents Nora with a copy of the article; Nora reads it and encourages Ruby to publish it, offering to join the media tour.

Ruby and Dean marry at the Summer Island chapel in winter, with Nora and Rand giving Ruby away.

This pool follows the central spine of Summer Island, tracing the major events that force Nora and Ruby to confront their years of estrangement. Nora's celebrated career collapses when a former lover blackmails her radio station with nude photos, and a drunk driving accident reunites her with her estranged daughters. Ruby agrees to care for Nora at the family summer house, secretly planning to write a damaging magazine exposé the whole time. Through small domestic moments together and visits from old friends and family, the two women slowly rebuild their fractured relationship. The arrival of Dean Sloan and a series of long-hidden family truths accelerate both the mother-daughter reconciliation and Ruby's romantic renewal. The novel closes with Nora endorsing the publication of the exposé, a public media tour launching both their careers, and Ruby and Dean marrying at the Summer Island chapel.

The headline events that drive Nora and Ruby from estrangement to reconciliation.

Ruby is fired from her waitressing job and visits agent Val, who tells her no one in Hollywood wants to work with her.

Dean attends a glamorous San Francisco gala feeling completely hollow and empty despite his wealth, success, and beautiful date.

Eric calls Dean from the hospital to say he is dying of cancer, and Dean immediately agrees to come to the island.

Ruby performs her comedy set on Joe Cochran's live talk show and is blindsided on air by news of Nora's nude photo scandal.

Ruby spends her magazine advance impulsively, buying an expensive evening gown and a used Porsche on Rodeo Drive.

Ruby goes to Nora's apartment to collect her belongings and discovers a box of gifts Ruby had returned unopened over the years.

Nora and Ruby ride the ferry to Summer Island together in near silence, with Ruby flooded by unwanted childhood memories.

Nora and Ruby argue loudly over housecleaning, then Nora gently tends to a cut Ruby gets while cooking, leaving both women emotional.

Dean finishes restoring the Wind Lass sailboat and carries a weakened Eric outside to the dock to see it for the first time.

Nora reads through a package of hate mail from listeners and watches a talk show in which a viewer calls her a coward for hiding.

Rand visits Nora at the summer house without warning and apologizes to her for his past treatment and infidelity during their marriage.

Ruby visits Eric at the Sloan family home; they share a joint together and Eric urges Ruby to forgive Nora before it is too late.

Dean takes Ruby on a bike ride and hike to a childhood waterfall, where he kisses her passionately and declares he still loves her.

Caroline admits at the summer house that her marriage is in crisis; Jeremy arrives the next morning and the couple leaves to reconcile.

Nora and Ruby return from their media tour and throw an early Fourth of July sparkler party at the island house for the ailing Eric.

This pool highlights the secondary events and supporting storylines that surround and enrich the novel's main arc. Dean's hollow, wealthy life in San Francisco and Eric's cancer diagnosis set the stage for the Sloan brothers' return to the island, while Ruby's professional failures make her desperate enough to accept a damaging magazine assignment. Small but revealing moments at the summer house — arguing over chores, a silent ferry crossing, tending to a small wound — chart the slow, reluctant thaw between Ruby and Nora. The restoration of the Wind Lass sailboat provides a physical project that mirrors the emotional healing taking place between Dean and Eric. Secondary reconciliations, including Rand's private apology to Nora and the resolution of Caroline's crumbling marriage, show that forgiveness spreads through all the families on the island. The pool closes with the bittersweet early Fourth of July party thrown for the dying Eric, a last act of love before his death.

The supporting moments and secondary characters that give the story its depth and texture.

Dean arrives at the Sloan family island home and reunites with a visibly ill Eric, who is waiting for him.

Lottie tells Dean that Eric's parents received his phone call but will not be returning to the island before he dies.

Nora's psychiatrist warns Ruby outside the hospital room that Nora may have intentionally driven drunk as a suicide attempt.

Eric confesses to Dean that being abandoned by his brother broke his heart, and the two men apologize and genuinely reconcile.

Ruby discovers a bottle of Nora's Valium prescribed in 1985 hidden in her parents' old bedroom, contradicting her memories of that period.

Nora and Ruby watch old home movies together, and Ruby tearfully admits she had completely forgotten her mother during their years apart.

By the fire, Nora tells Ruby that her own father was an abusive alcoholic and that hiding his addiction shaped her inability to accept love.

Ruby recovers a suppressed memory of confronting a returning Nora at the door and telling her that no one in the family loved her anymore.

Caroline tells Ruby she had always known about Rand's infidelity and that Ruby had simply refused to see the truth as a child.

Nora confesses to Ruby that she overdosed on sleeping pills during the marriage and was eventually committed to a mental institution.

Ruby calls Nora "mom" for the first time in many years while apologizing, causing Nora to break down in tears.

Ruby realizes the article will destroy her relationship with Nora and leaves a message with Val's assistant saying she is withdrawing.

Val calls Ruby after Dean's marriage proposal to inform her she is legally obligated to submit the article or face a lawsuit.

Dean buys a camera on impulse and begins photographing Eric, marking the start of a new artistic identity for himself.

Eric tells Nora she was always his true mother before closing his eyes, whispering his late partner Charlie's name, and dying.

This pool focuses on the pivotal revelations and emotional turning points that transform Ruby's understanding of her family's history and her own role in their estrangement. From the moment Nora's psychiatrist suggests the car crash may have been a suicide attempt, Ruby is forced to question the story she has clung to for years. Key revelations accumulate — hidden prescription pills, an abusive alcoholic grandfather, multiple suicide attempts, a mental institution — each one dismantling the simple narrative that Nora abandoned her family for fame. Equally important are the raw emotional breakthroughs: old home movies that reawaken lost memories, the first time Ruby calls Nora "mom" in years, and the recovery of a suppressed memory revealing Ruby's own role in keeping them apart. The pool also traces the legal and moral trap of the tell-all article, from Ruby's attempt to withdraw to the binding obligation that forces submission. It closes with Eric's peaceful death, in which he names Nora as his true mother and whispers his late partner Charlie's name — a final revelation about chosen family and love.

The discoveries and emotional shifts that rewrite everything Ruby believed about her family.