The Ghostwriter

In March 2024, Olivia is living in her own house in Topanga Canyon. Her literary agent, Nicole, calls her with an offer for her first work engagement in nearly a year. Horror novelist Vincent Taylor wants to contract Olivia’s services as a ghostwriter for his latest book.

Nicole doesn’t know that Vincent is Olivia’s father: Over the last 20 years, Olivia has estranged herself from Vincent. At one point, Olivia was briefly married and living in Paris, allowing her to take on her ex-husband’s surname, Dumont. Her work as a ghostwriter specializing in the memoirs of strong female figures allows her to imagine herself as someone other than Vincent’s daughter.

Olivia’s career went into rapid decline after she attempted to call out another author named John Calder for ghostwriting a misogynistic book about a former politician, who was convicted for sex trafficking. Calder’s influence and charisma enabled him to overcome Olivia’s callout, and when Olivia’s publisher urged her to release a public apology, Olivia doubled down by ranting about the misogyny of the publishing industry on social media. Calder sued Olivia for damages, putting Olivia $500,000 in debt.

Nicole encourages Olivia to work with Vincent as the opportunity could revive her career. Additionally, Vincent is offering at least $250,000 in fees, which means Olivia won’t have to sell her house. Olivia holds reservations about the job, believing that Vincent may try to manipulate her. She ultimately accepts, reluctant to let go of her house. She also believes that this project will allow her to find closure in her relationship with her enigmatic father.

Vincent’s team communicates the need for discretion, which Nicole is able to guarantee without having to draw up a non-disclosure agreement. Olivia agrees to these terms in her contract, but lies to her partner, Tom, that an agreement is in place so that she doesn’t have to tell him about her assignment. She is nervous about telling him the truth since she previously convinced him that both of her parents were already dead. Tom is sensitive about lying because his own parents frequently lied when he was growing up.

Olivia drives through her old neighborhood and fondly remembers the good parts of her childhood, which include her father telling her stories about a character he invented called Lionel Foolhardy. Their relationship was ruined by Vincent’s literary success and subsequent experience of alcohol and drug addiction. Vincent frequently let Olivia down by prioritizing his career over quality time with her.

Olivia remembers her only childhood friend, Jack Randall, whose father, Mark, was Danny’s best friend. Jack was Olivia’s constant companion at the library, where she actively tried to learn more about her aunt and uncle’s murders. One detail she recalls from the investigation is that Poppy is known to have hitchhiked with an unknown man shortly before her death. It was also rumored that Vincent got into several fights with both Danny and Poppy around this time. Vincent’s alibi, however, is that he was with his girlfriend, Lydia, and a teacher who was helping them resolve an argument.

Olivia arrives at the house her father bought with the profits of his first book deal. She meets a woman who introduces herself as Alma and directs Olivia to the office to meet with Vincent.

Vincent has Lewy body dementia, a degenerative illness that compromises his ability to write. Alma is Vincent’s caregiver, ensuring that he makes his appointments, eats, and medicates on schedule. Vincent insinuates that he wants to help Olivia after the incident with John Calder. Although Vincent has a complete draft of the book he has contracted Olivia to work on, Olivia expresses her apprehensions with the job. Vincent gives her a week to decide whether she wants to continue working on this assignment.

Olivia quips about an incident in which Vincent designed a treasure hunt for her, only for the hunt to lead her to a pet hamster that accidentally died from suffocation. Vincent responds by informing her that he has been sober for seven years. They shift their conversation to talk about the book. Vincent reveals that the book is not actually a novel, but a memoir about his experience of Danny and Poppy’s murders. Olivia thinks about who else she will have to interview for this project, including her mother. Vincent clarifies that Olivia won’t have to interview anyone because the scope of her work will exclusively focus on improving the draft he’s already written. Olivia protests that this is unorthodox for memoir ghostwriting, but Vincent insists.

Vincent shares a stack of legal pads in which he has handwritten the draft. When Olivia asks him why he wants to write the book now, Vincent admits that he is running out of money. He adds that the memoir will finally bring closure to the memory of his siblings, whose deaths have been under scrutiny for nearly 50 years. Olivia does not believe his answer.

Olivia does research on Lewy body dementia to learn more about her father’s symptoms, which causes her to doubt that he is incapable of writing the book at this early stage of the illness. She calls Nicole and shares her impressions of Vincent, as well as his diagnosis. Nicole offers to talk to the editor assigned to the book project, Neil, about pushing back Olivia’s deadline, which is in three months. Olivia tells her to wait until she can start working and assess how much time she really needs. Nicole shares the good news that the first tranche of her fee has been processed.

Olivia reads through the first legal pad and finds the language rambling. She steps away and examines the guesthouse, which also serves as Vincent’s storage. She remembers her last conversation with Vincent before she moved to Paris, during which she accused him of being addicted to the attention that his siblings’ death brought him.

Olivia returns to the manuscript and tries to orient herself around Vincent’s nonlinear narrative. Recurring details inspire her to write a chapter that captures the mood of Vincent’s youth, along with the dynamics of his family. She sends this chapter to Neil to see if she is on the right track. When she realizes that she was born just five years after the murders, Olivia wonders what her relationship with Poppy would have been like had her aunt lived.

Olivia goes through the manuscript once again, hoping to find topics for discussion with Vincent. She finds disparate thoughts, including the need to “bury” Ricky Ricardo, the line “She shouldn’t have gone” (33), and an expressed desire for Danny’s murder.

On the evening of June 13, 1975, Vincent digs a pit to burn his bloody shirt in, following the method that Danny taught him for disposing objects. Once the shirt has been destroyed, he buries the ashes and returns to Lydia.

Olivia steps out to make sense of what she has read, unnerved by Vincent’s possible admission of guilt. She tries to visit an old restaurant from her youth but finds that it has been replaced by a grill and café. She soon bumps into her old friend, Jack.

The last time Jack and Olivia engaged with each other was after Vincent moved Olivia to boarding school in Switzerland. Olivia says nothing about her book project, explaining that she has come after learning about Vincent’s illness. Jack now runs his family’s vineyard and is married to a man named Matt. Jack’s presence brings Olivia comfort. He invites her to have dinner at his house that weekend.

Olivia calls Tom, who correctly guesses that her assignment is in California. Olivia admits that she doesn’t know how long the assignment will take to finish, but doubts that it will be finished in a month.

Close to midnight, Olivia is back in the guesthouse when she hears Vincent yelling in the main house. She runs up and finds Alma trying to placate him. Vincent misidentifies Olivia as her mother, Lydia, and tells her that he can’t find the opening to Poppy’s hiding place. Once Vincent relaxes, Olivia asks him why he wanted to find Poppy’s hiding place. Vincent indicates that it is where he hid the knife.

Olivia is shocked by the possibility that Vincent was referring to the knife that killed Danny and Poppy. The next morning, she gets an email from Neil, who doesn’t approve of the chapter Olivia sent him. Nicole sets up a meeting with Vincent’s team so that Olivia can clarify their expectations.

Vincent dismisses the previous night’s incident as a bad dream. Alma clarifies that it was a hallucination and advises Olivia to validate Vincent whenever he experiences them. Nevertheless, Olivia confronts Vincent about whether he had been referring to the murder weapon. Both Vincent and Alma assert that the hallucination was false. Alma reminds Vincent that they are stepping out at noon.

Olivia conducts her first interview with Vincent. She shares her difficulty with parsing through his manuscript. Vincent admits that his illness makes it difficult to discern the truth, but he is relying on Olivia to help him fill the gaps in his knowledge with things like their treasure hunts. Olivia is confused by the reference to the treasure hunt and stresses the need to interview other people. Vincent explains that he needs to keep the project’s existence secret because it will include things he did not disclose during the initial investigation of the murders.

Olivia picks up from the topic of the murders and repeats her question about the knife Vincent hid in Poppy’s hiding place. When Vincent protests the accusation, Olivia refocuses by asking him to recall Poppy and Danny. Vincent describes Danny as a survivalist with a deep love for the outdoors. Though the family never went on camping trips together, Danny frequently camped in the grove outside their house. Vincent suggests that this is how Danny coped with their father’s emotional distance and their mother’s overly critical nature, whereas Vincent simply acted out. Their parents imposed strict rules like curfews, which Vincent and his siblings frequently broke.

Vincent describes Danny as both charming and terrifying. Vincent elaborates the latter by sharing an anecdote in which he witnessed Danny burying the neighbor’s cat in the grove. The cat was wrapped in a bloody shirt, which convinced Vincent that Danny killed it.

Olivia shifts to the aftermath of the murders. Vincent shares that he and his parents had to stay in a motel during the investigation. There was nowhere else they could stay since the family’s friends became cautious of Vincent. Vincent’s parents placed him in a separate motel room. Throughout the whole night, Vincent listened to his mother cry. When Olivia asks Vincent if he cried for his siblings, Vincent evades the question.

Late in the evening of June 13, 1975, Vincent sits in the motel, thinking about the shirt he burned earlier. Vincent’s head throbs in the spot that Danny had thrown against the wall at some point that evening. He imagines the police going through the horrific crime scene. Although Vincent is the only child left, his parents can’t stand looking at him. Vincent listens to his mother crying through the wall and privately consoles himself with the satisfaction he feels over Danny’s death.

Olivia visits Vincent’s childhood home. A neighbor informs her that the property is managed by a real estate firm called Markham and Sons. Olivia calls the firm, who indicate that the property is not available for rent, even if it is vacant. They refuse to tell her the name of the current property owner. Olivia enlists the help of her real estate agent, Renee, to find out the owner’s name.

On her way back to Vincent’s house, Olivia remembers how much she missed home during her time at the Swiss boarding school. Vincent only visited her once during her schooling and was extremely impatient while he was there. He made it clear to Olivia that he was really in Switzerland to meet with his foreign publishers. Olivia’s teacher praised her for starting a Women’s Empowerment Club at the school, but Vincent scoffed at the achievement, calling it “trouble.” Before abruptly leaving, Vincent urged Olivia to focus on her studies instead of putting her efforts into activism.

Renee is reluctant to help Olivia since Olivia is making the sale of her house difficult. Olivia turns to her other friend, Allison, who works in escrow, for help.

On Sunday, Olivia visits Jack at the vineyard and meets Matt. Olivia tells them about her first marriage to a French skier named Craig, who was unfaithful to her. She then talks about her relationship with Tom, whom she describes as being deeply connected to her. She simultaneously feels guilty about keeping her work assignment secret from Tom. When Matt tells Olivia to bring Tom on her next visit, she declines. Jack realizes that Olivia hasn’t told Tom about Vincent. He warns her that hiding from herself might not work out for her.

Back in the guesthouse, Olivia looks at photos of herself and Tom. She hesitates to call him, knowing he will ask her about work, but then she decides that she misses him too much to avoid him. She admits that her assignment is more complicated than she thought, referring to it in abstract terms to avoid telling him the truth. She is conflicted about writing the memoir in its current state because she wants to maintain her integrity as a ghostwriter. When Tom asks her what she needs, she asks for distraction. Tom tells her about his work but lets her go when he realizes she isn’t fully present.

Olivia thinks about Jack’s warning and resolves to keep the truth away from Tom, hoping to finish the project before Tom has any opportunity to learn about it.