The Breakaway

Abby Stern, a doggie daycare employee and freelance dog walker in Philadelphia, first rode a bicycle at nearly seven years old, and the freedom it gave her shaped her life. Growing up as the heaviest child in her family, she endured years of scrutiny from her mother, Eileen, who sent Abby to Camp Golden Hills, a weight-loss camp, instead of the theater camp she wanted to attend. At camp, Abby fell for Mark Medoff, one of the heaviest boys there, whose adoration made her feel beautiful for the first time. They shared three summers of first love before Abby broke up with Mark by phone, spurred by the attention she received from boys at school after losing weight.

In April 2021, Abby attends a bachelorette party in Brooklyn for her camp friend Kara, where she meets Sebastian Piersall at a late-night club. They share an intensely passionate night that leaves Abby feeling desired and treasured. She sneaks out before he wakes, choosing to preserve the memory rather than risk his disappointment at seeing her in daylight. Back in Philadelphia, she reconnects with Mark at a community camp for neighborhood kids. Mark, now a podiatrist who underwent gastric bypass surgery as a teenager, is transformed physically but retains the same kindness Abby remembers.

By August 2023, Abby and Mark have been together for two stable years. He is devoted but does not ride a bike and follows an extremely regimented diet. When he raises the subject of moving in together, Abby feels anxiety rather than excitement. That evening, her cycling mentor Lizzie calls to ask if Abby can lead a last-minute two-week Breakaway Bicycle Tours trip along the Empire State Trail from New York City to Niagara Falls. Abby agrees, partly for the love of cycling and partly to delay deciding about her future with Mark.

On Day One, Abby introduces herself as ride leader in Battery Park. Her riders include the Spoke'n Four, four senior cyclists; Lily Mackenzie and her fifteen-year-old daughter Morgan; the Presser family, including parents Dale and Kayla and teenage sons Andy and Ezra; and Lincoln Devries and Sebastian Piersall. Jasper serves as the trip's chef, mechanic, and sag wagon driver, operating the support van that carries gear and gives tired riders a lift. Abby is stunned to recognize Sebastian as the man from Brooklyn. Before she can recover, Eileen arrives unannounced, having coordinated with Mark and Lizzie to join the trip. She tells Abby she wants to spend time with her, noting that her own mother died at sixty-three, Eileen's current age.

Sebastian's perspective reveals a man who has coasted on charm, cycling through casual hookups while avoiding intimacy. His mother struggles with alcohol, and his father is consumed by managing her, though Sebastian has long resisted acknowledging how dysfunctional his home life is. He remembers Abby as the one woman he wanted to see again. On Day Two, Lincoln shows him a viral TikTok video revealing that seven of eight women at a brunch have all slept with Sebastian. The video earns him the nickname "Kissing Bandit" and jumps to legacy media. Lincoln urges Sebastian to be Abby's friend rather than pursue her.

As the days pass, Lily, who expected her pastor husband Don to do the riding, struggles on the bike and falls. Morgan rides far ahead, barely speaking to her mother. Privately, Morgan is pregnant by her boyfriend Brody, who has left for army basic training, and she has scheduled an appointment at a Planned Parenthood in Syracuse. Ohio, where Morgan lives, requires parental consent for minors seeking an abortion, which she is certain her parents would never give.

Abby discovers the TikTok scandal and feels deflated, realizing the night she cherished was one of countless similar encounters for Sebastian. She tells him to keep his distance, but they begin riding together and having long conversations anyway. Sebastian notes that Mark neither rides bikes nor shares Abby's love of food. Abby lashes back, mocking Sebastian's inability to sustain a relationship.

Morgan asks Andy Presser, who has a crush on her, to accompany her to the clinic. Andy tells his mother Kayla, who tells Abby. Together they devise a plan: Eileen will keep Lily occupied with a spa day while Kayla and Andy take Morgan under the guise of a college tour. Eileen agrees to help without hesitation. At Planned Parenthood, Morgan takes the first pill of a medical abortion and receives a second set to take the following day.

That same day, Sebastian insists on riding through a severe thunderstorm. He crashes over his handlebars, and Abby bandages his scraped knees. Sheltering under a tree, he tells her he searched for her after she left his apartment two years ago. She apologizes for ghosting him, and he kisses her.

The next day, Morgan takes the second set of pills while hiding in the hotel gym with Andy. Lily, finding her daughter gone, panics. When Morgan returns and confesses, Lily reveals that she had an abortion herself at eighteen and never told her husband. She tells Morgan it is her story to tell and that she wants her to have every choice in the world.

That evening, the Spoke'n Four give Abby a makeover, and Sebastian arrives with daisies. Over dinner at Sackett's Table, they talk openly about their lives. They spend the night together, and Sebastian tells Abby their first night was the best of his life. She says it was hers, too. Over the following days they grow closer, and Sebastian suggests Abby could start a cycling club for girls.

On the last day of riding, Mark is waiting in Buffalo. Someone has posted a photo from the restaurant showing Abby and Sebastian together. Abby admits to cheating, and Mark offers forgiveness, but she tells him he deserves better and ends the relationship. When Eileen comes to check on her, Abby snaps and tells her mother to leave her alone. She rides loops around the city, then leaves the trip the next morning without saying goodbye to Sebastian.

Back in Philadelphia, Abby rebuilds. She continues working at Pup Jawn, the doggie daycare, and develops the cycling club idea. She apologizes to Eileen, who reveals she was once overweight herself and had gastric bypass surgery after her children were born. Eileen explains she believed controlling Abby's eating would spare her the loneliness she had endured. She tells Abby that Mark was not right for her and encourages her to call Sebastian.

Abby launches Girls Ride Philly, a free cycling club with group rides and workshops on nutrition, self-esteem, and study skills. A year later, Lincoln sends her a personal essay Sebastian has published, titled "The Breakaway," about the TikTok scandal, the bike trip, and the unnamed woman he fell for. Sebastian describes doing personal work to understand why he avoided vulnerability and intimacy.

One Saturday, Abby finds hand-lettered signs along her riding trail: "ABBY STERN I MISS YOU." Sebastian is waiting at the end, standing with her riders, who helped set up the signs. He tells her he wants to get to know her. Abby, fighting tears, says girls like her do not belong with guys like him. Sebastian tells her there is no one like her. She agrees, and together they get on their bikes to ride.