That Night

Gillian McAllister’s 2021 domestic thriller, That Night, plunges readers into a tense ethical dilemma centered on the Plant siblings—Cathy, Joe, and Frannie. During a family vacation in Verona, Italy, a frantic late-night phone call pulls Cathy and Joe into a nightmare: Their sister Frannie has hit and killed a man with her car. Fearing the police will not believe it was an accident, the siblings make the fateful decision to bury the body and conceal the crime. This single choice initiates a catastrophic descent into a world of lies, blackmail, and escalating violence that threatens to destroy them. The novel explores themes such as The Limits of Unconditional Loyalty, showing how protective instincts can lead to moral decay. It also examines The Longstanding Effects of Childhood Trauma, as the siblings’ codependency is shaped by a past family tragedy, and illustrates The Slippery Slope of Rationalizing Immoral Choices as their initial cover-up spirals into a series of ever more desperate crimes.

A former lawyer, McAllister is known for crafting psychological suspense novels that place ordinary characters in extraordinary moral crises. She is the author of several other popular thrillers, including the New York Times bestseller Wrong Place Wrong Time, which was chosen as a Reese’s Book Club Pick. Upon its publication, That Night was selected as a Richard & Judy Book Club Summer Pick in 2021 and achieved bestseller status. The novel was later adapted into a Netflix original television series.

This guide refers to the 2026 William Morrow paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain depictions of graphic violence, death, substance use, mental illness, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and cursing.

Plot Summary

During a family holiday in Verona, Italy, veterinarian Cathy Plant receives a frantic, late-night phone call from her younger sister, Frannie. Cathy and their brother, Joe, rush to a secluded dirt road to find a distraught Frannie kneeling over a man’s body. Frannie claims she accidentally hit him with their rented Land Rover. Fearing the police won’t believe it was an accident—especially since Frannie argued with the man at a market earlier that day in an incident witnessed by a policeman, and Joe also had a recent run-in with local police—the siblings make a fateful decision. Rather than calling for help, they bury William’s body deep in the nearby woods. They burn the bloodstains on the road to create a cover story of a late-night barbecue and clean the rental car, but not before discovering wallet, containing cards that identify him as William McGovern, and a torn, blood-soaked document in his pocket, which Cathy decides to keep.

The cover-up quickly spirals out of control. To explain the dent in the rental car, Joe deliberately crashes it into a barrier at the rental agency before returning it. Their situation becomes more precarious when they learn from a news report that the missing man, William McGovern, was a half-British Italian police officer. The document Cathy recovered from his body appears to be a warrant bearing the name “Plant,” solidifying their fear that he was investigating them. In a desperate attempt to create a false trail, Joe tries to use William’s debit card at an ATM, but the transaction fails. This alerts the bank, and the police investigation immediately shifts from a missing person case to a homicide inquiry. The authorities dispatch cadaver dogs to search the woods near the Plants’ villa. As the police begin interviewing locals, Joe tries to misdirect them by sending a fake tip from a burner phone, claiming William was seen alive in Padua. The police soon inform the siblings that they are free to return to England, but not before Cathy finds a torn-off section of the document William McGovern was carrying, containing the name “Joseph,” apparently confirming that the warrant was for “Joseph Plant,” her brother.

Back in England, the siblings’ secret begins to endanger their life at home. At their family veterinary practice, a colleague, Evan Sawyer, overhears them discussing the crime and realizes their involvement. Financially strapped after a bitter divorce, Evan blackmails them, demanding a 20% partnership in the practice in exchange for his silence. Feeling trapped, Joe forges his mother Maria’s signature on an amended partnership deed to appease him. Joe’s wife, Lydia, grows increasingly suspicious of his secrecy and erratic behavior, creating a rift in their marriage. The final blow comes when a neighbor from Verona, Carina, calls Joe with news that the woods where they buried William are scheduled for a new property development, ensuring the body will be imminently discovered.

Panicked by the tightening investigation, Cathy surreptitiously reads Frannie’s deleted emails and discovers that William was the father of her son, Paul, the result of a one-night stand in Verona years earlier. The emails show that William has been pursuing custody of Paul and has presented her with an Italian court document matching the one found on his body. Cathy realizes that the person named on the document is not her brother, Joseph Plant, but her nephew, Paul Joseph Plant. Cathy races to Frannie’s house, where she finds Joe already present. Frannie confesses the complete truth to her siblings: Her killing of William McGovern was not an accident. That night, she drove to meet him on the dirt road, where he again threatened to use the Italian courts to get full custody of Paul. In a panic, she hit him with the car. The impact wasn’t fatal; when he got up and continued his threats, she deliberately hit him a second time. Before calling her siblings, she spent 30 minutes using William’s phone to delete all email correspondence between them from the server. Joe, enraged by the depth of Frannie’s deception and the extreme risk she exposed them to, violently grabs her by the wrists and accuses her of ruining their family before storming out. That same night, a drunk Evan appears at Joe’s house, escalating his blackmail demands to a controlling 51% share of the business. When Evan threatens to call the police, Joe punches him. Evan falls, strikes his head on a fence post, and dies. As Joe stands over the body, a news alert confirms William’s remains have been found in Verona.

Realizing their elaborate cover-up has collapsed, Joe makes one last desperate move to protect his family. He calls Cathy and Frannie to a shed in their garden and insists on taking the fall for everything. He instructs Cathy to tell the police that he confessed both killings to her: that he murdered Will in Verona and then killed Evan to silence him. He tells her to cooperate fully with the investigation, secure a plea bargain for her own lesser role, and then use her testimony to try and reduce his murder charges to manslaughter. With the support of her new boyfriend, Tom, Cathy makes the call to the police. Joe is arrested, and the trauma causes Frannie to have a severe mental breakdown, leading to her institutionalization. Cathy takes custody of Paul. At the ensuing trial, she testifies against Joe as planned. The strategy is partially successful: Joe is acquitted of murder but found guilty of manslaughter for Evan’s death, reckless driving for Will’s, and numerous other charges related to the cover-up. Cathy receives a suspended sentence. An epilogue reveals that a year later, Cathy is happy with Tom, and Frannie is recovering. Joe is serving a long prison sentence, and Frannie keeps a calendar, counting down the 6,112 days until his release, a quiet testament to a family bond that, though shattered, has not been entirely broken.