The Beach Club

The Beach Club, Elin Hilderbrand’s debut novel, was published by St. Martin’s Press in 2000. It is the first of her 30 novels set on Nantucket Island, located off the coast of Massachusetts. The novel takes place in the late 1990s at the fictional Nantucket Beach Club and Hotel. As in many Hilderbrand novels, several characters make their way in and out of the location as their story arcs interweave. The Beach Club’s main plotline centers on hotel manager Mack Petersen as he decides between staying in Nantucket or returning to his family farm in Iowa. Besides being torn between two destinations, Mack is also unsure about getting married as he loves two women: long-term girlfriend Maribel Cox and hotel guest Andrea Krane. Tensions in the novel ebb and flow until the hotel is threatened by a hurricane that also acts as a catalyst for emotional resolution. The Beach Club marks the first appearance of several of Hilderbrand’s trademarks: multiple storylines, multigenerational characters, sexual tension, and themes that include The Long-Term Impact of Emotional Voids, Finding One’s Way Through Grief and Anger, and The Importance of Chance and Encounters. Some characters from The Beach Club are later mentioned in The Hotel Nantucket (2022).

This guide uses the 2000 St. Martin's paperback edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of substance use, cursing, illness and death, racism, pregnancy loss, child death, graphic violence, suicidal ideation, physical abuse, mental illness, and sexual content.

Plot Summary

Bill Elliott, owner of the Nantucket Beach Club and Hotel, and Mack Peterson, the hotel’s manager, are preparing for its opening. After 12 years of living on Nantucket, Mack hears the island saying he’s found a permanent home. Still, he has doubts, as two choices weigh heavily on him. First, Mack must either sell the family farm he inherited or return to Iowa and run it. Second, he must choose whether to marry his long-term girlfriend, Maribel Cox, or pursue his relationship with Andrea Krane, an annual guest at the hotel. Meanwhile, Bill’s wife, Therese, is looking forward to seeing their daughter, Cecily, who is graduating from boarding school. Therese worries about Bill’s recent heart problems as he contemplates his own mortality. A mysterious man has begun sending offers to buy the hotel, but Bill refuses these offers as he intends to give the hotel to Cecily.

Mack hires college graduate Jem Crandall to assist bellman Vance Robbins. Jem sees his future in California but is held back by self-doubt and parental disapproval, while Vance wallows in a years-long grudge against Mack. New front desk clerk Love O’Donnell hopes to find someone to impregnate her before she heads back to Colorado. Elderly Lacey Gardner arrives at her cottage, located behind the hotel. Memorial Day brings memories of the Elliotts’ stillborn son, Lacey’s deceased husband, and Mack’s parents, who died in Iowa in a car accident.

As summer begins, more guests begin to arrive. Shortly after a recently divorced man named Leo Hearn checks in, an allergic reaction nearly kills one of his boys, reminding Therese of her deceased child. A few weeks later, a charming, married guest named Arthur Beebe is at the top of Love’s list of potential fathers. However, Vance thinks the guest might be involved in illegal activities. When Beebe skips out on the bill, Vance discovers a gun in his room and pockets the weapon. Meanwhile, Jem runs into Maribel on his day off, and the two spend a happy day at the beach together.

Cecily arrives at the now busy hotel. Smitten with Gabriel Da Silva, a Brazilian classmate, she secretly plans to defer college to travel to Rio de Janeiro. Andrea Krane also arrives and renews her relationship with Mack. However, while Mack says that he loves both Andrea and Maribel, Lacey isn’t sure he loves either. After observing Mack and Andrea in a passionate embrace, Vance uses the gun to demand that Mack confess to Maribel, which he does. Broken-hearted, Maribel tells Mack to leave. The next day, Andrea insists that Mack has made a mistake since their own relationship is just a summer fling.

Hoping her parents will support her travels with Gabriel, Cecily announces her plans. Furious, they instead emphasize her obligations to the hotel and reveal Bill’s heart condition. However, Cecily wants nothing to do with the business and finds their behavior manipulative and controlling. Meanwhile, a love-struck Jem comforts Maribel while Vance shares a kiss with Love.

In an effort to get his relationship with Maribel back on track, Mack talks to Bill and Therese about profit-sharing, but they decline. Therese also suggests that Mack marry Cecily, adding to his frustration. When a guest, the president of the Texas Rangers baseball team, offers Mack a position with the organization, he decides to accept. When Mack reveals this, as well as his engagement to Maribel, it merely deepens his rift with the Elliotts. The engagement also upsets Jem, who befriends Neil Rosenblum, a wealthy guest dying of cancer. Neil sees Jem’s potential and gives him a large sum of money, two tickets to California, and encouragement to win Maribel over. The renewed peace between Mack and Maribel turns out to be short-lived: A heat wave escalates tensions as Mack admits that he doesn’t want to get married to anyone. Meanwhile, Love becomes upset when Vance reveals he may want children in the future, but they make up when he agrees to a temporary summer relationship.

A custodian from Cecily’s boarding school arrives as a guest. After talking to Cecily, she gives Cecily money to fly to Brazil. Leaving a note for her parents, Cecily hurries to the airport. Bill is enraged, and Cecily’s departure reignites his chest pains. He falls into a deep depression just as Hurricane Freida threatens Nantucket and the hotel. Around the same time, Love finds out that she’s pregnant.

Due to Bill’s despondency, Mack must go over his head to protect the hotel and its guests from the storm. Mack leaves Maribel to fend for herself, resulting in another fight. Back at the hotel, Mack sends everyone home to safety, telling Jem to check on Maribel. Convinced Cecily will never come back, Bill rages on the widow’s walk before Therese brings him inside and comforts him.

Firefighters evacuate the guests from the hotel as Bill, Mack, and Lacey remain. Mack is touched when Lacey compares him to a son. A distressed Bill confesses that he’s selling the hotel because he has lost everyone he cares for, including Mack. Mack realizes that he can’t give up the hotel and says that he’ll stay. By the morning, the storm is over. Mack and Vance, friendly again, tour the damaged hotel and find it salvageable. Though Mack is distraught when he learns that Lacey died overnight, Therese reassures him that Lacey might reunite with her beloved husband.

Mack inherits Lacey’s cottage and tells the president of the Rangers that he isn’t moving to Texas. He also plans to sell his parents’ farm in Iowa. After Lacey’s memorial, Mack and the others spread her ashes over Nantucket. Love announces that she’s pregnant, thrilling Vance. Ashamed of his former behavior, he gets rid of the gun. Bill firmly turns down the buyer. He offers to adopt Mack, and though he declines, Mack embraces the spirit of his suggestion.

Maribel chooses to go to California with Jem, though Mack asks her to stay. As Mack mourns her leaving, he meets the mysterious buyer who has been writing Bill. It turns out to be Maribel’s father, who wanted to buy the hotel and give it to Mack and Maribel. Now, however, he believes that Maribel will never come back to Nantucket. Back at the hotel, Mack reassesses his life. Cecily calls and reveals that she’s broken up with Gabriel. She’s returning to surprise her parents and to see Mack, who tells her that he’ll be waiting.