The Jetsetters

The novel opens with a prologue set in 1983 on Hilton Head Island, where Charlotte Perkins arranges her three children for a family portrait taken by her husband, Winston. Six-year-old Lee, the eldest, smiles brilliantly to please her father while privately clinging to her siblings, four-year-old Cord and baby Regan, as her only source of safety. Winston spends the day smoking and watching television; Lee has learned to mentally leave her body when danger arises. The narrator reveals this will be Lee's last family vacation until 32 years later, when the family becomes "jetsetters" (6).

In present-day Savannah, Georgia, 71-year-old Charlotte, now widowed, attends the funeral of her best friend, Minnie Robbins. That evening she sees a television advertisement for the "Become a Jetsetter" contest offering first-class tickets to Athens and a nine-day Mediterranean cruise to Barcelona. Emboldened by loneliness, she writes a confessional essay about her first sexual experience at 16 with a famous painter during a summer in Paris and submits it, hoping a win might reunite her fractured family.

Separate chapters introduce Charlotte's adult children. Cord, 36, is a venture capitalist in New York who has been sober for 534 days. He wants to propose to his boyfriend, Giovanni, a middle school teacher, but is terrified of coming out to Charlotte and keeps Giovanni hidden from his family. Regan, the youngest sibling, lives in Savannah with her controlling husband, Matt, a surgeon, and their two young daughters, Isabella and Flora. Matt once rescued teenage Regan from a predatory high school teacher, an act that became the foundation of their relationship, but the marriage has turned oppressive. Regan secretly contacts her friend Zoë, a police officer in Atlanta, who arranges for a private investigator to tail Matt. Lee, 38, arrives from Los Angeles, her acting career finished and her boyfriend, Jason, having left her for his costar on a sitcom. She reaches Charlotte's condo unable to admit the truth. The sisters have not spoken in 10 years, since Lee told Regan to call off her wedding to Matt, who had been Lee's boyfriend first.

A letter from Splendido Cruise Lines announces Charlotte has won. Her backstory unfolds through memories of a childhood as the daughter of an American diplomat in Paris, raised largely by a nanny, Aimeé, while her emotionally distant mother, Louisa, taught her that feelings were unsavory and never to be discussed. At 16, grieving Aimeé's death, Charlotte wandered to a café called Le Zinc, where she met Winston and his bohemian circle.

The family converges in Athens and boards the Splendido Marveloso, a massive cruise ship. Cord tries to share the investigator's findings about Matt with Regan, but she shuts him down. Lee and Regan see each other for the first time in a decade; Regan stiffens at Lee's hug but does not pull away. Aboard ship, Charlotte meets Paros, her Greek cabin porter, and feels an immediate attraction. Cord, despite warnings from Handy, his Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) sponsor, accepts champagne and breaks his sobriety. Drunk at a welcome gathering, he tells Lee he is gay. Lee responds with love, and Cord asks for help telling Charlotte.

Through Charlotte's memories, a devastating secret emerges: Winston did not die of a heart attack. He hanged himself in 14-year-old Lee's bathroom. Lee found the body and held him up, screaming, until Charlotte arrived and made Lee promise never to tell Cord or Regan.

Over successive port stops, the family's dynamics shift. In Malta, Charlotte prepares her erotic essay, "The Painter & Me," for the ship's talent show. The essay describes how the painter invited her to his castle near Aix-en-Provence and took her virginity; she believes the resulting painting, Nude on a Couch, now in a Barcelona museum, depicts her. Cord reads a troubling article comparing 3rd Eyez, a virtual reality company in which he invested his firm's funds during a drunken blackout, to the infamous fraud Theranos. Lee discovers her period is late and asks Paros to buy her a pregnancy test but is too frightened to take it.

In Sicily, suppressed conflicts surface. Lee confesses that Jason dumped her and her career is over. Regan tells Charlotte her marriage is failing, and Charlotte promises financial support. In Naples, Matt tells Lee he is in love with a kindergarten teacher named Janet and plans to leave Regan. At Pompeii, the family stands before a figure preserved in volcanic ash, and the moment of shared mortality draws them together, Cord encircling them all in his arms.

Giovanni arrives unexpectedly in Rome, but Cord freezes, unable to engage with him before his family. Giovanni confronts Cord and walks away. Matt tells Regan he is leaving to be with Janet. Regan lets him go and contacts a lawyer. She later reveals to Giovanni, whom she encounters in a Florence market, that she deliberately facilitated Matt's affair with Janet to engineer her own escape. In a stationery store, Regan buys a leather-bound notebook, reconnecting with her artistic identity.

In Arles, Charlotte leads Cord to the countryside near Aix-en-Provence and points to the painter's distant château. She confesses she never loved Winston and asks Cord what he wants. He says he wants to be happy. Charlotte runs to the castle and pounds on the door, screaming that the painter is dead and she is alive. Cord tells her he is gay and that Giovanni is his love. Charlotte nods: "Lucky me" (303).

On the ship's final night, Lee miscarries. She receives a voicemail from Jason revealing he knows she has been using his credit card to fund the cruise. Every door seems to close: Jason, her career, motherhood. She puts on a gold dress and goes to her balcony, deciding there is only one way out.

Meanwhile, Charlotte reads her essay at the Passenger Talent Show in the Teatro Fabuloso, the ship's theater. She learns backstage that the contest was canceled and no one won; someone else paid for the trip. Charlotte abandons her prepared text to speak about love, reads the full essay, and receives a standing ovation interrupted by cries from the decks: "It's a woman!" (314). She finds Paros, and they make love. Charlotte experiences her first orgasm, understanding that the painter and Winston were merely footnotes to her story.

Regan, alerted by a missed call from Lee, runs to her sister's cabin and finds Lee on the balcony's edge. Lee reveals their father's suicide: "He killed himself. I wasn't supposed to tell you" (326). Regan extends her hand: "I've got you" (326). Lee takes it. In the Medical Center, Cord and Regan keep vigil. Cord calls Giovanni and insists their relationship is permanent; Giovanni relents. Cord learns that 3rd Eyez has gone public successfully, making him wealthy, but he feels only tired.

The family stays in Barcelona for three weeks while Lee recovers. Charlotte reunites with Paros and takes him to the museum to see Nude on a Couch. At a pastry shop, a photographer captures the family: Lee, still shaken; Cord, hopeful; Regan flanked by her daughters. Charlotte takes a bite of the last donut, recognizing her family as "enough, more than enough, as perhaps they had been all along" (332).

The epilogue, set in 2018, finds Lee reflecting on her diagnosis of postpartum psychosis and on the parallel between herself and Winston. Both lack the brain chemistry nature had not provided, but only one action separated them. Her suicide attempt, filmed by a passenger, goes viral and leads to fame: a reality show, magazine covers, and serious film roles. The novel returns to the moment on the balcony. Lee gazes at the ocean, wanting to follow her father into the fog. But behind her, Regan appears, arm outstretched, whispering that Lee is beloved. Lee takes her sister's hand.