Ada has a public screaming outburst in her history class that lasts 52 seconds before she collapses silently into her chair.

Kostas buries the fig tree in the garden to protect it from an approaching winter storm.

Meryam arrives and performs a traditional mourning ritual beside the buried fig tree while singing in a foreign language.

Kostas and Defne meet secretly in Cyprus, and Kostas gifts Defne a wooden music box inlaid with butterflies.

Kostas brings Defne to The Happy Fig tavern, where the owners Yiorgos and Yusuf welcome the young couple warmly.

A pipe bomb explodes at The Happy Fig, killing five people; Kostas and Defne make love for the first time that night.

EOKA-B launches a coup to overthrow Archbishop Makarios, triggering a Turkish military response and full-scale conflict.

Panagiota sends Kostas to London for his safety; he leaves a letter for Defne with Yusuf and Yiorgos before departing.

Armed men attack The Happy Fig; Yusuf and Yiorgos vanish, leaving a pregnant Defne alone and without support.

Defne names her son Yusuf Yiorgos and gives him up for adoption; the boy dies of malaria before his second birthday.

A remark from Dr. Norman causes Kostas to realize Defne may have been pregnant in 1974, prompting him to return to Cyprus.

Defne and Kostas reconcile fully; she reveals the truth about their son's fate and what happened to Yusuf and Yiorgos.

Kostas proposes to Defne with an ammonite fossil at Saint Hilarion castle, and she accepts despite knowing it means family estrangement.

Kostas and Defne travel to London together; the fig tree cutting takes root, and Defne discovers she is pregnant with Ada.

The fig tree reveals that Defne's spirit chose to take up residence within it after her death to remain close to her family.

The novel's central plot follows Kostas and Defne, a Greek and Turkish Cypriot couple whose forbidden love survives war, forced separation, and decades of silence. In 1974 Cyprus, their secret meetings at The Happy Fig tavern are shattered by escalating conflict, ending when Kostas is sent to London and Defne is left pregnant and alone. Defne endures the unthinkable by herself — losing her friends Yusuf and Yiorgos to violence and eventually giving up her son, who dies in infancy. Decades later, a clue from a doctor brings Kostas back to Cyprus, where he and Defne reconcile and she finally reveals the truth about everything she suffered. They marry and rebuild their lives in London with a cutting of the fig tree and their daughter Ada, but Defne's death casts a long shadow over the family. The novel closes by revealing that Defne's spirit lives on inside the fig tree, remaining close to the family she loved.

The core love story and its lasting consequences.

Ada overhears Kostas on the phone inviting Defne's sister Meryam to visit and assumes he has a secret girlfriend.

Ada discovers the video of her classroom outburst has gone viral, inspiring worldwide copycat screaming videos.

Meryam prepares a lavish traditional Cypriot breakfast banquet for Ada and Kostas the morning after she arrives.

Meryam presents Ada with Defne's old butterfly music box, telling her that Defne had always loved butterflies.

Yiorgos warns Kostas that someone may have spotted him leaving The Happy Fig with Defne and reported it to his mother.

Kostas's older brother Michalis is shot dead in broad daylight; his younger brother Andreas leaves home to join EOKA-B.

Yusuf gives Yiorgos a gold pocket watch engraved with lines of Cavafy's poetry as a birthday gift.

Defne slips out to The Happy Fig after the coup to find Kostas, only to discover he has already left for London.

Kostas contacts Meryam from London and learns that Defne has been receiving his letters but refuses to respond to any of them.

Kostas is brought by his contact David to meet Defne at her CMP excavation site, where she greets him with cold distance.

At a group dinner, Defne reveals she and Kostas were once together and shows off her painted lady butterfly tattoo.

Kostas destroys illegal songbird traps overnight and is ambushed and beaten bloody by poachers lying in wait.

Kostas and Defne visit their infant son's grave together at a military cemetery in Cyprus.

Defne begins drinking heavily after returning to CMP interview work in London and makes Kostas promise never to tell Ada about their past.

Ada and Kostas talk honestly about Defne's death over toasties; Kostas uses the tree-girdling analogy to help Ada understand.

While the main plot focuses on grand turning points, the story is also shaped by quieter but significant moments across all three timelines. In 1974 Cyprus, early warnings of danger surround Kostas and Defne — his mother grows suspicious, his brother is killed in broad daylight, and the tavern owners exchange a precious gift that speaks of love under threat. In the early 2000s, Kostas navigates his way back to a cold and guarded Defne through a colleague, and their reunion is complicated by buried grief and difficult truths shared over a group dinner. In 2010s London, Ada struggles with social humiliation and family estrangement while Meryam's visit slowly begins to fill the gaps in her understanding of her parents' story. The details of Defne's descent into alcoholism and her fateful promise to Kostas about Ada's sheltered upbringing are also revealed. Together, these events weave the emotional texture of the novel and show how each character arrived at where we find them.

The supporting moments that shape Ada, Kostas, and Defne.

Ada and Kostas bury the fig tree together; Kostas reveals the tree was brought from Cyprus and calls it a warrior.

Meryam reveals she was bound by a promise not to visit Defne while their parents were alive; Ada storms off in fury.

Ada remembers discovering Defne tearful on a sad anniversary and smelling alcohol on her breath for the first time.

A summer heat wave kills hundreds of fruit bats; Kostas buries them in tears and begins withdrawing emotionally into himself.

Kostas accidentally discovers Yiorgos and Yusuf secretly embracing at The Happy Fig, realizing the men are a couple in grave danger.

Panagiota secretly writes to her brother in London asking him to take in Kostas and keep him away from the Turkish girl.

Turkish troops invade; Panagiota flees her home and sends word to Kostas that he must not return to Cyprus.

At a psychic session in Cyprus, a vision of an infant boy named Yusuf Yiorgos causes Defne to abruptly storm out.

Kostas confronts Defne after the psychic session and realizes she had a baby rather than an abortion, a secret kept from him.

Meryam takes Ada to an exorcist in London; Ada refuses to have her supposed djinn transferred to another person and walks out.

Defne reveals to Kostas that she could not go through with the abortion; armed men attacked the tavern while she was inside.

A queen ant tells the fig tree that two men's bodies lie chained together at the bottom of a well near the tavern.

A honeybee reports to the fig tree that the CMP has found Yusuf and Yiorgos's remains; Defne receives Yiorgos's pocket watch.

Kostas takes a single healthy cutting from the dying fig tree at The Happy Fig ruins to carry back to London.

Ada returns to school with quiet confidence, proudly submits her history essay, and tells Meryam her first day back went fine.

This pool traces the novel's most pivotal revelations and emotional turning points, from small personal discoveries to shattering truths. Ada's relationship with her buried past begins to shift when she helps her father bury the fig tree and later confronts her aunt Meryam, whose arrival forces long-suppressed grief and questions into the open. In the 1974 storyline, Kostas discovers his tavern friends are secret lovers, the conflict forces Panagiota's hand, and the Turkish invasion ends any hope of Kostas and Defne reuniting in Cyprus. In the early 2000s, a psychic session becomes the catalyst for Kostas forcing the truth from Defne about the child they lost, while a queen ant and a honeybee bring the final pieces of Yusuf and Yiorgos's fate to the fig tree. In London, Ada's visit to an exorcist mirrors Defne's earlier psychic session, and both women ultimately choose reality over superstition. The pool ends with Ada's quiet but meaningful return to school — the most hopeful turning point of all.