The Future Saints

Twenty-eight-year-old Theo Ford, an artist relations manager at Manifest Records known as "the Fixer" for his specialty in managing underperforming bands before cutting them loose, flies from New York to Bonita Vista, California, to see the Future Saints perform. The indie rock trio has ignored his calls for months. Theo watches lead singer-guitarist Hannah Cortland, bassist Tarak "Ripper" Ravishankar, and drummer Kenny Lovins deliver a lackluster set to about fifty people. Hannah drinks tequila onstage, stumbles, and gets heckled. Then, for her final number, she performs a raw new song called "Six Feet Under," dropping to her knees as she sings about wanting to sleep forever. The room goes silent, and Theo recognizes extraordinary talent.

Backstage, Theo reveals that Manifest CEO Roger Braverman sent him to manage the band. Hannah calls him a corporate impostor, and the whole band rejects him. When he warns that Manifest will cancel their contract and sue if they fail to deliver a final album, Hannah quits on the spot. What Theo does not yet know is that the band's previous manager, who died roughly ten months earlier, was Virginia "Ginny" Cortland, Hannah's younger sister. Ginny drowned while surfing during a visit to their parents' home. Since Ginny's death, Hannah has been carrying on full conversations with her sister's ghost, a vivid projection of grief she half believes is real.

A TikTok video of "Six Feet Under" goes viral, surpassing ten million views. Theo brings Kenny and Ripper to convince Hannah this is the break they have been chasing. Hannah looks to Ginny's ghost, who tells her to keep living. She agrees to continue.

The band embarks on an extended tour while simultaneously recording new material. At a rehearsal in Los Angeles, Hannah and Ripper erupt into a vicious argument about grief, and the band's tour manager Bowie reveals to Theo that Ginny was Hannah's sister. Theo, realizing he has mishandled everything, camps on her doorstep to apologize. In the days that follow, Hannah opens up about her childhood: a mother obsessed with achievement, her ADHD and dyslexia diagnoses, and Ginny's decision to abandon a gifted academic program to follow Hannah into music. The depth of that bond, and its loss, is the wound at the center of Hannah's life.

As the tour gains momentum, so does Theo and Hannah's connection. At a party after a San Francisco show, they share personal histories on a rooftop: Theo describes his father's abandonment, and Hannah identifies the people-pleasing pattern it created in him. A charged physical moment is interrupted before it becomes anything more. In Las Vegas, a rock star friend reveals Theo's other nickname, "the Grim Reaper," exposing his original assignment to cut the band loose. The Saints feel betrayed. That night at the Dolby Live, Hannah channels her fury into a blistering new song aimed at Theo, switching instruments with Ripper so he can play lead guitar for the first time. She chases Theo backstage to explain the song was catharsis, not punishment. Theo pulls her into a fierce embrace. Hannah, who has not been hugged since Ginny's funeral, breaks down crying in his arms.

A Rolling Stone cover story propels the Saints to national fame. On Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Hannah declares she is not trying to heal but to "live inside" her grief so Ginny "never fades." Roger instructs Theo to tip off paparazzi to build Hannah's "dark and tortured" brand. A pop star named Sasha Thee Pop Princess attacks Hannah online, accusing her of fabricating a dead sister to sell tickets. At a Saturday Night Live after-party, Roger feeds Hannah drinks, and under social pressure she shaves half her head. Ginny's ghost urges her not to; Hannah snaps back, "You're not even here."

At a Billboard party, Roger promotes Theo, then reveals the full scope of his manipulation: He engineered Sasha's attack, orchestrated the paparazzi, and sent a photographer to follow Hannah to Ginny's grave. In a private moment, Hannah reveals she has been playing along with Roger's demands to help Theo earn his promotion. Theo tells her to stop. When Roger later pulls the Saints' finished album over a harsh review, Theo leaks the story to an industry outlet, publicly shaming him into reversing the decision. Roger restores the album but fires Theo. The Saints propose Theo start his own label with them as his first clients.

Theo takes the band to play Hannah's old high school dance in Bonita Vista, then reunites her with childhood friends at a beach bonfire, where everyone shares joyful, irreverent stories about Ginny. That night, Hannah and Theo share their first kiss. The fragile momentum shatters when Hannah's parents visit and reveal that Ginny had been secretly studying for the MCAT, the medical school entrance exam, planning to leave the band. The exam fell on the weekend she drowned. Hannah demands answers from Ginny's ghost aloud, alarming her parents, who realize she is speaking to someone invisible. Her mother tries to take her to the hospital. Hannah throws them out and grabs a bottle of tequila.

Drunk, Hannah drives to Miramar Beach, where Ginny drowned, and wades into the rip current. Ginny's ghost appears and tells Hannah the truth: She is not a ghost but a figment of Hannah's imagination. The current drags Hannah under. Theo, alerted by Kenny's frantic call, swims into the dangerous water and holds her afloat until a Coast Guard officer rescues them.

Hannah wakes in the hospital, confirms she did not intend to end her life, and agrees to seek help. Before entering the Atone Treatment Center, a rehab facility in Malibu, she visits Theo, who is bruised and bandaged from a brawl on the beach. They share a long kiss. In therapy with Dr. Xavier, Hannah begins to accept that Ginny's medical school plan was not a rejection but an act of faith in their bond. In a final conversation on the beach at sunset, she says goodbye to Ginny's ghost. Ginny tells Hannah she always knew how much her sister loved her, says, "I release you," and walks into the horizon.

The Saints' album, One Day, Virginia, becomes a massive commercial and critical success. The band earns five Grammy nominations and announces they will disband after a final performance. At the ceremony, fans line the sidewalks wearing T-shirts bearing Ginny's image. The Saints perform their final song backed by home videos of Ginny's life, and the arena rises for a standing ovation. Hannah wins Song of the Year and thanks Theo, then tells Roger Braverman on live television to go fuck himself, igniting pandemonium. The band wins Record of the Year; Theo dedicates the award to "a little boy who grew up lonely in Virginia, listening to Whitesnake after his father left." Backstage, Hannah tells Theo she loves him but must return to treatment. Six months later, Theo runs Ford Records from a beachfront house in Long Beach, with Kenny and Ripper's new band, the Frontmen, as his first clients. On a brilliant afternoon, he notices a figure walking out of the horizon, shimmering in the sunlight. He steps outside to look, and the novel ends on a note of luminous, unresolved hope.