Summer State of Mind

Daisy Stevens, a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) nurse at a top-level trauma center in Charlotte, North Carolina, is shaken after losing a patient, a newborn named Brian whose mother chose not to be present for his final hours. Exhausted and grieving, she spots a rare opening at Cape Carolina Regional Medical Center, a sleepy seaside hospital in a town she loved as a child. She applies impulsively, craving calm.

In Cape Carolina, Tilley, a woman approaching sixty, lives in the east wing of Dogwood, her family's historic estate on a peninsula. Her high school boyfriend Robert died decades ago in a cotton baler accident, leaving Tilley prone to dissociative episodes in which she slips out of the present. She shares the house with her niece Amelia; Amelia's husband, Parker Thaysden; and their three-year-old twins, Greer and George. The twins are the biological children of Parker and his late first wife, Greer McCann, conceived from frozen embryos and carried by Amelia as surrogate before she and Parker fell in love and married.

Mason Thaysden, Parker's older brother, coaches baseball at Cape Carolina High. Once destined for professional baseball, Mason suffered a career-ending shoulder injury during a bar fight with Parker during Mason's senior year and spent years drinking and drifting before coaching brought him purpose. One afternoon, Mason and his star junior pitcher, Drew Christianson, hear a faint mewling from the recycling dumpster behind the gym. Mason discovers a newborn still covered in blood and vernix, a waxy coating that protects a newborn's skin. He tucks the baby inside his shirt for warmth, and they race to the hospital.

At Cape Carolina Regional, Daisy, on her first day, takes charge. A doctor finds the baby healthy with mild jaundice requiring light therapy. The hospital designates her "Jane Doe," and Daisy bonds with the infant instantly. Mason returns to check on the baby and asks for Daisy's number.

Mason introduces Daisy to his family at a dinner at Dogwood, where she meets Amelia, who edits Southern Coast magazine; Mason's parents; Amelia's mother, Elizabeth, who is Tilley's sister; Mason's best friend Robbie and Robbie's wife Trina; and Ms. Theodora, the pastor's wife. Tilley makes a dramatic entrance in a hoopskirt, and she and Daisy connect immediately. Mason and Daisy later begin calling the baby "Maisy," a blend of their names. Daisy offers to babysit the twins so Parker and Amelia can take an anniversary trip, quickly becoming part of the family.

Their relationship deepens. Mason confides that he wonders whether he can grow in a town that sees him only as a former boy wonder. Daisy shares her past: Her birth mother died in a domestic dispute, and her adoptive mother, Julie, left when Daisy was thirteen. Her uncle adopted and raised her. Meanwhile, Tilley learns the Cape Carolina Playhouse is casting Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly! She auditions and delivers such a powerful performance that the director casts her on the spot.

Daisy, already certified as a foster parent, decides to foster Maisy. Mason rallies parents of his baseball players, who donate supplies within hours. When Daisy arrives at her transformed town house, she recognizes one of the volunteers: Julie Moore, her estranged adoptive mother, now living in Cape Carolina with a new family. The discovery intensifies Daisy's lifelong feeling of being insufficient.

The Department of Social Services approves Daisy's home, and Maisy is released into her care. Around the same time, Drew brings Sarah, Ms. Theodora's seventeen-year-old daughter and his secret girlfriend, to Mason's house with a dangerous fever. Daisy recognizes a postpartum infection and connects Sarah to the abandoned baby. Sarah confides she gave birth behind the school and left the baby, not knowing Drew brought the infant to the hospital. Daisy keeps the secret, partly to protect Sarah and partly because she fears losing Maisy. She coaches Sarah on North Carolina's safe surrender law, which shields a parent who delivers a newborn to a hospital from criminal liability.

During a visit, Tilley holds Maisy and slips into a dissociative episode, addressing the baby as "Robbie" and revealing she gave birth after Robert died but was not allowed to keep her son because she was unmarried. Mason overhears and later infers that Tilley's instability was an additional factor in the family's decision. He confronts his mother Olivia, who denies everything but inadvertently confirms that Robbie is Tilley's biological son, raised as Elizabeth's.

At a scouting meeting, the head baseball coach from the University of North Carolina (UNC) offers Drew a scholarship and surprises Mason with a coaching position. Mason signs immediately but struggles to tell Daisy. Easter brings further upheaval. Julie visits Daisy to apologize, revealing she never formally adopted Daisy and had no legal claim after the separation. At Dogwood, Big George McCann, the twins' biological grandfather, arrives and begins a tentative romance with Tilley. She later visits the live oak where Robert first kissed her and asks his spirit for permission to move on.

Tilley devises a way to unburden her conscience: In full Dolly Levi costume, she tells Robbie on the dock that he is her son. Robbie, believing she is having an episode, dismisses her gently. Tilley is satisfied, knowing she spoke the truth even if it was disguised as madness.

The secrets about Maisy unravel when police arrive to question Sarah. She blurts out that the father safe surrendered the baby, and Drew realizes the child is his. The officer accepts the legal framing and leaves, but Daisy is furious with Mason for letting the truth emerge, fearing she will lose Maisy, and tells him never to call her again. The rupture deepens when Carmen, a local news anchor, reports Mason's UNC move on television before he tells Daisy. Drew's mother Cheryl demands custody, and Sarah's parents kick her out after learning about the baby. Daisy takes Sarah in.

Robbie and his wife Trina secretly gather DNA samples, with Robbie's blood tested against hair from Tilley's brush. The results leak through town gossip. Robbie confronts Elizabeth and Tilley, who explain the plan was always for Tilley to reclaim him when she recovered, but she never did.

Drew, Sarah, and Cheryl visit Daisy with a plan: Sarah will attend college, Drew will follow the next year, and Cheryl and her husband Andy, Drew's father, will care for Maisy. They ask to keep the name. Daisy is devastated but recognizes the arrangement is best for the child. Her father then arrives with a box of gifts, cards, and letters Julie sent every year that he intercepted, confessing he blocked Julie's contact after she left. Separately, Julie arranges for Abbott Taylor, Brian's mother, to visit Daisy at the hospital. Abbott thanks Daisy for loving Brian in his final moments. The encounter helps Daisy begin forgiving herself and Julie.

Daisy surrenders Maisy in an agonizing goodbye. Before opening night of Hello, Dolly!, Tilley confesses to Mason that she was auditioning in New York when Robert died and has blamed her ambition ever since. Mason urges her not to let the past steal more years. During the performance, Tilley orchestrates a grand gesture: Planted audience members sweep Daisy onstage, where Mason appears, sings the final lyric of "It Only Takes a Moment" to her, and kisses her. They reconcile backstage.

Daisy decides to move to Chapel Hill with Mason. George arrives backstage after a delayed flight and shares a first kiss with Tilley. At a family dinner, Mason and Daisy announce their move and receive a rescue puppy named Dolly. That night, they drive to the Christianson house and peer through the window: Drew cradles Maisy while Sarah strokes her head and Cheryl brings a bottle. Daisy finds peace, recognizing she and Mason gave Maisy this future.

In an epilogue months later, Tilley is engaged to George, thriving as a theater reviewer, and fully present for the first time in decades. The family gathers for what appears to be Mason's birthday but is actually his planned proposal to Daisy, with Tilley orchestrating every detail.