The Ghostwriter

Toward the end of Vincent’s manuscript, Olivia finds a line indicating that Danny witnessed Poppy’s death. This suggests that Vincent was present during both murders. Olivia discusses this line with Vincent, asking what it meant. Vincent claims not to remember, so Olivia reminds him that she has uncovered his lies before. Vincent admits then that his alibi was false and that when he reached the house, it was too late to save his siblings.

On June 10, 1975, Danny chases Poppy through the grove. He caught her filming something she wasn’t supposed to see, so he wants to get the camera from her to destroy it. Danny grapples Poppy, prompting her to fight back. Danny succeeds in throwing Poppy’s camera against a tree. Poppy tries to retrieve her wrecked camera, but Danny pulls her away, bringing her home.

Danny urges Poppy to stay silent about the thing she saw. Poppy argues that what she saw was wrong and that Danny should report it. Danny threatens to kill her if she tells anyone what she saw. Poppy bumps into Vincent, who wonders what she and Danny were talking about. Poppy refuses to tell him but makes it clear that it had nothing to do with him. She goes out to retrieve her camera.

The next day, June 11, Vincent and Lydia are watching television, but all Vincent can think about is confronting her about the abortion. Poppy returns home in a bad mood, and Vincent knows that she is mad about losing her camera.

Margot arrives and tries to convince Poppy to come to Mr. Stewart’s party that evening. Vincent doesn’t plan to go because he has a term paper to revise. Lydia feels that she needs to go because she feels indebted to Mr. Stewart. This annoys Vincent. Later, Lydia tells Vincent’s parents that she needs to get home. Wounded, Vincent coldly lets her out and tries not to think about her going to the party to be with Mr. Stewart.

Poppy gets drunk for the first time at Mr. Stewart’s party, hoping it will numb her feelings throughout the evening. She misses the safety of her camera, which was not at the grove when she went to recover it.

Poppy enters Mr. Stewart’s house and finds Margot, who shows her one of Mr. Stewart’s photo albums. The pictures of Danny on one of their camping trips makes Poppy feel sick, a reaction that Margot and Mr. Stewart register. When Poppy sees Vincent at the party, she steadies herself. Mr. Stewart asks if she wants to talk somewhere private. Poppy is combative with him. She soon vomits into one of his plants. Vincent and Margot take Poppy home.

Back in Poppy’s room, Vincent asks her to explain her behavior. Poppy cautions Vincent about letting Lydia spend time with Mr. Stewart. This unnerves Vincent.

On June 13, 1975, Vincent confronts Lydia over cheating on him and getting an abortion. Before she can answer him, Lydia’s mother interrupts them. Lydia promises to tell him the truth later.

At 6:15 pm, Vincent follows Poppy into the haunted house at the carnival and grabs her, demanding to know what she and Danny were talking about the day she lost her camera. Poppy insists that it isn’t his problem, but Vincent argues otherwise. This causes Poppy to break down, and she asks him to meet her again at home in 10 minutes.

Vincent sees Lydia outside the haunted house and tells her that Poppy and Danny were fighting. Lydia tells him to walk with her to the rocks so that she can explain everything. Vincent knows this will delay him from meeting with Poppy, but he figures that talking with them both will help him discern what to do next.

Olivia absorbs the revelation that her father’s alibi was fabricated. She shows Vincent Poppy’s diary and asks him about the film reel that upsets him. When Vincent isn’t sure, Olivia shows him the clip of the bonfire party on her laptop. Once again, he gets upset, pushing the laptop off the desk. He mistakes Olivia for Lydia, blaming her for what happened after she abandoned him to go to the bonfire party. Alma hears the commotion and tries to placate Vincent. He smashes a window and starts bleeding from his hand, making it necessary to call an ambulance.

After paramedics take Vincent away, Alma asks Olivia to stay away from Vincent to avoid any further incidents. Knowing that she cannot ask Mr. Stewart to tell her what Poppy might have captured on her camera, Olivia decides to visit her mother.

Olivia has very few clear memories of Lydia, who left shortly after Olivia finished kindergarten. Her clearest memory involves Lydia admonishing her to do things she might not want to do. Olivia considers this advice in the context of the pain Lydia has carried throughout her life. She realizes that whatever happened on the night of the Taylor murders influenced Lydia’s decision to leave their family.

Olivia finds Lydia’s apartment and tells her that she has been staying at Vincent’s house. Lydia reveals that she and Vincent have stayed in touch over the years, allowing her to stay updated on Olivia’s upbringing. Lydia nevertheless asks about Olivia’s life, wondering if she has children. Olivia learns that Vincent has been supporting Lydia financially, paying her rent ever since she left their family.

Olivia mentions her theory that Mr. Stewart got Lydia pregnant, which would explain why he maintained the same alibi that Vincent and Lydia had on the night of the murders. She shows Lydia the film reel clip of the bonfire party to find out why it upsets Vincent. Lydia pauses the clip and points herself and Danny out in the background of the frame. She explains that that night, Danny flirted with her. They went somewhere private and started having sex, but then Lydia felt guilty about Vincent and asked Danny to stop. Danny then raped Lydia, causing her to become pregnant.

Lydia denies that she was in an affair with Mr. Stewart, though Danny attempted to convince Vincent that Mr. Stewart was the one who got her pregnant. Olivia asks her to explain why Mr. Stewart was willing to accompany her to get an abortion. Lydia couldn’t rely on her mother, and Mr. Stewart had deduced that she was pregnant on his own. Vincent leveraged Mr. Stewart’s role in Lydia’s abortion to get him to support their alibi on the night of the murders.

Lydia does not believe that Vincent killed Poppy. She reveals that she was the one who took Poppy’s camera, having witnessed Poppy and Danny’s fight when they emerged from the grove. She planned to hold on to the camera to safeguard it for Poppy, but then Poppy was killed. She gives the camera to Olivia, explaining that she never gave it to the police because she was afraid of finding out what made Danny want to destroy it. Olivia understands this explanation because it is reflective of her own thinking when she refused to share the truth of her childhood with Tom. Lydia apologizes for causing Olivia pain.

Olivia shares her new theory: Danny murdered Poppy to stop her from exposing him as a rapist and Vincent killed Danny in retaliation. Lydia believes this is only the story that Vincent wants to tell. The film in Poppy’s camera will reveal the truth of what happened.

Olivia reckons with the fact that Lydia was holding on to evidence that would have exonerated Vincent. She soon understands that this line of thinking was precisely what caused Lydia’s lifelong solitude, and that Olivia herself is at risk of following the same path if she continues to hold things back from the people in her life. She texts Tom, admitting the truth about her relationship with Vincent. She promises to tell him more later and assures him that she was telling the truth about her book project.

Olivia has the film inside Poppy’s camera processed into a digital file. A few hours later, she goes to her house and observes Tom’s absence. She thinks about how she can win him back with her resolution to be more honest with him. She mentally prepares herself to watch Poppy’s final film reel.

At 6: 48 pm on June 13, 1975, Poppy is dying from her stab wounds. Danny stands over her, apologizing tearfully. Poppy forgives him and begins to see her life in sequential fragments. Danny paces around, unsure of what to do. Poppy hopes that Vincent will find her diary, her film reels, and her camera and piece everything together.

Vincent comes up behind Danny and sees Poppy dying. Poppy closes her eyes to prevent herself from seeing what will happen next.

Olivia writes several chapter drafts over the course of four days, propelled by what she saw in Poppy’s final film reel. Afterwards, she returns to Vincent’s house and expresses her regrets about what happened the last time they saw each other. She admits that she visited Lydia, explaining that it was an essential step for her process. Vincent admits that he withheld the answers because he wanted to give Olivia one final treasure hunt. He also felt that she would be more likely to believe the truth when she discovered it herself, as opposed to hearing it from him directly and maintaining her skepticism.

Olivia shows Vincent Poppy’s last film reel. The clip shows Mr. Stewart approaching Danny’s tent in the grove. Mr. Stewart accuses Danny of avoiding him, reminding him that they used to have a “special connection.” Danny accuses Mr. Stewart of molesting kids in the equipment shed and explains that this is why he burned it down. Mr. Stewart identifies Danny as the person who killed his cat and offers to forgive him if Danny will be friendly with him. Mr. Stewart sexually assaults Danny once more, so Danny pushes him away. Mr. Stewart invites Danny to the party, then leaves. Danny soon sees Poppy filming the encounter. He chases after her.

Olivia connects the revelations from the film to Poppy’s refusal to attend Mr. Stewart’s party. She speculates that Poppy’s behavior might have caused Mr. Stewart to realize that she knew about Danny’s sexual abuse. This would have given Mr. Stewart a motive to kill Poppy and create an alibi for his whereabouts during the murders. Vincent is shaken by this theory, having genuinely believed that Mr. Stewart was helping him by supporting his alibi. He admits that he always suspected that Danny was Poppy’s killer and held on his hatred of Danny for many years. Although he doesn’t forgive Danny for raping Lydia, he understands that Danny was Mr. Stewart’s victim as well. Vincent weeps for Danny.

Olivia proposes to expose the truth about Mr. Stewart in Vincent’s memoir. She reads from the draft that she wrote about the night of the murders. In the draft, Vincent arrives at the house after both Poppy and Danny have been stabbed. Vincent takes the knife from the house, comes up with the alibi to exonerate himself, and convinces Mr. Stewart to support the story. Vincent approves of the draft and instructs her to send it to Neil. Olivia asks him who he thinks killed Danny now. Vincent refuses to answer her question until after she has sent the draft.

At 7: 00 pm on June 13, Vincent attacks Danny on the assumption that Danny stabbed Poppy. Poppy does not have the strength to tell her brothers who really stabbed her.

She was waiting for Vincent to get home when Mr. Stewart came into the house, asking her to talk. Poppy refused to entertain him, but Mr. Stewart remained, knowing that Poppy’s parents were out for the evening. Poppy grabbed the kitchen knife and ran to her room. Mr. Stewart intercepted her, then overpowered her to stab her with the knife. After he left, Danny arrived and discovered Poppy.

Poppy continues to regret that Vincent and Danny are destroying one another. She wants Vincent to see the good parts of Danny’s character. The fight suddenly ends. Poppy hears Lydia asking Danny what he did to Vincent. Poppy dies.

At 7: 45 pm on June 13, Vincent stumbles through the grove, struggling to make sense of what happened after Danny knocked him out. When Vincent regained consciousness, Danny had already been stabbed. Panicking, Vincent took the knife and ran out of the house, searching for Lydia. It is only as he is running through the grove that he realizes that possession of the knife will implicate him in the murders.

Vincent finds Lydia, who is covered in blood and likewise distressed. Holding him, Lydia explains her assumption that Danny had killed him. Vincent realizes what she did afterwards. The two silently resolve to keep the truth a secret.

Vincent and Olivia work together on a version of the memoir that will protect Lydia, incorporating details from research and second interviews with Margot and Mark. The version they arrive on exonerates both Vincent and Lydia but implicates Mr. Stewart in the murders. Olivia sends a draft of the memoir to Tom, who comes to understand Olivia’s actions after reading it. Vincent’s illness worsens, prompting Olivia to move him to a care facility. Olivia begins the work of cleaning out Vincent’s house. Throughout this time, Olivia and Vincent wrestle with the question of who killed whom, still unsure if Mr. Stewart or Danny killed Poppy. Vincent resigns the past to Poppy and Danny, believing that he and Olivia will never reach it themselves.

Vincent regrets sending Olivia away to boarding school. Olivia forgives him, accepting that it was for the best. Vincent admits that he really did it because Olivia reminded him too much of Poppy. This is their last conversation before Vincent dies.

The novel jumps forward to June 2025. Olivia appears on a podcast called Secrets and Lies. She is being interviewed to promote Vincent’s ghostwritten memoir, All Her Beautiful Days, now a bestseller. Olivia explains her complicated relationship with Vincent and how that impacted their collaboration on his memoir. She also discusses the experience of learning the truth about Vincent’s innocence. She admits that there isn’t any physical evidence that links Mr. Stewart to the Taylor murders. Privately, she knows that Lydia is the only person who knows what she did with the murder weapon.

In the wake of the memoir’s publication, survivors of Mr. Stewart’s abuse come forward to share their experiences. Mr. Stewart is soon incarcerated. Olivia has Vincent’s childhood home torn down, so that something good can be built on the ashes of the Taylor family tragedy.

Olivia listens to her interview as she visits Vincent’s empty house one last time. Tom comes to the house at Olivia’s invitation, so that she can show him where she grew up.

On March 3, 1975, Vincent watches his family while Poppy is opening her birthday gifts. She receives her Super 8 camera and spins around. Their parents soon start dancing.

Vincent wonders about the new neighbor who recently bought the house next door. He imagines that it is another family with a child his age. He hopes that the child can look past his flaws and become friends with him.

Vincent is pleased by the comments of his English teacher on a story he wrote for class. The teacher observed Vincent’s potential as an author. Vincent is motivated to try harder in school because he sees the possibilities of what he can become. Watching his family, Vincent wishes to live in this moment forever. Poppy invites him to spin with her. Vincent is assured she will always hold on to him.