Young Shepherd lives on Isla Pixol with his mother Salomé under the roof of oil industrialist Enrique.

Shepherd discovers a hidden underwater volcanic tunnel off the coast of Isla Pixol and swims through it to a secret inland pool.

Salomé escapes the abusive Enrique and takes Shepherd to live in poverty in Mexico City.

Shepherd volunteers to mix plaster for Diego Rivera's enormous mural at the Mexican National Palace.

Shepherd is expelled from the Potomac Academy military boarding school in Washington DC for a same-sex relationship.

Shepherd returns to Mexico City and takes a job as a cook in the Kahlo-Rivera household.

Communist exile Leon Trotsky and his wife arrive at the Kahlo-Rivera house seeking protection from Stalinist assassins.

A Stalinist group led by muralist Siqueiros storms Trotsky's fortified home in a failed assassination attempt.

A Soviet spy posing as 'Jacson' infiltrates Trotsky's inner circle and assassinates him with an ice pick.

Frida Kahlo arranges for Shepherd to flee Mexico with her paintings, secretly concealing his manuscripts in the shipment.

Shepherd settles in Asheville, opens a crate sent by Kahlo, and finds his rescued manuscripts and notebooks inside.

Shepherd finishes and publishes his first novel about the clash between the Aztecs and Spanish conquistadors, which becomes a bestseller.

The FBI formally charges Shepherd with Communist ties and his publisher threatens to drop his completed third novel.

Shepherd testifies before HUAC and admits to having worked as a cook and typist for Trotsky, Kahlo, and Rivera.

Shepherd dives into the lacuna at Isla Pixol and never resurfaces; Mrs. Brown decides to compile his writings for posterity.

Harrison Shepherd grows up adrift between Mexico and the United States, never fully belonging to either country, and finds his footing as a servant and cook in the household of artists Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Through that work, he ends up living with and typing for exiled Communist leader Leon Trotsky, whose assassination forces Shepherd to flee Mexico and start over in Asheville, North Carolina. After discovering that Kahlo secretly preserved his manuscripts, he completes and publishes a series of celebrated historical novels about ancient Mexico. His past connections to Trotsky, Kahlo, and Rivera come back to haunt him during the Red Scare, when the FBI and HUAC target him as a dangerous Communist sympathizer. Publicly humiliated, blacklisted, and stripped of his livelihood, Shepherd retreats to the island of his childhood and disappears into the underwater tunnel he discovered as a boy. His devoted secretary, Mrs. Violet Brown, preserves his writings so that he will not be forgotten.

The headline events of Harrison Shepherd's remarkable life.

Estate chef Leandro befriends the lonely Shepherd on Isla Pixol, teaches him to cook, and gives him swimming goggles.

Shepherd spots Frida Kahlo at the Coyoacán market trailing a servant with a birdcage and volunteers to carry her things home.

Shepherd and Bull's Eye visit the Bonus Army encampment and meet Bull's Eye's cousin living there with his wife and infant.

US military forces led by Patton and MacArthur violently attack the Bonus Army encampment while Shepherd and Bull's Eye are present.

Kahlo gives Shepherd the affectionate nickname 'Insólito' after he confides he was expelled for same-sex relations with a classmate.

Professor John Dewey arrives to chair a commission defending Trotsky; Shepherd's English translations are published in the Washington Post.

Trotsky's affair with Frida Kahlo is discovered, causing Trotsky to move out of the Rivera-Kahlo household for several months.

Shepherd's mother Salomé dies in a car crash in Mexico City.

Trotsky gives Shepherd his own typewriter after finding him writing late at night, directly encouraging his dream of becoming a novelist.

During the war, Shepherd earns income by transporting artwork from Washington DC to Asheville for safekeeping.

Shepherd hires Mrs. Violet Brown as his full-time secretary after she moderates a library discussion of his debut novel.

Shepherd's second novel, about Aztecs driven from their ancestral home and wandering in search of a new one, becomes a bestseller.

Shepherd and Mrs. Brown travel to the Yucatán Peninsula and visit the ancient Mayan ruins at Chichén Itzá.

Tom Cuddy visits Shepherd in Asheville and the two rekindle the romantic relationship they began during their wartime work together.

Tom Cuddy sends Shepherd a letter ending their relationship, citing Shepherd's alleged anti-American political beliefs.

From his earliest days on Isla Pixol, Shepherd's life is shaped by the people who show him kindness—particularly the cook Leandro, who teaches him skills that sustain him for decades. His time in Washington DC exposes him to American injustice through the violent suppression of the Bonus Army, and his return to Mexico deepens his bonds with Kahlo's Communist circle and sets him on the path to becoming a writer. Trotsky's household becomes a place of real encouragement for Shepherd's literary ambitions, though personal heartbreak follows when his infatuation with Trotsky's secretary goes unreciprocated. After Trotsky's murder, Shepherd rebuilds his life in Asheville step by step—finding steady wartime work, publishing successful novels, hiring Mrs. Brown, and nurturing a tender romance with his old friend Tom Cuddy. The steady erosion of those relationships under the mounting pressure of the Red Scare ultimately leaves Shepherd isolated, stripped of the human connections that once gave his life meaning.

The people and moments that quietly shaped Shepherd's journey.

Shepherd arrives in Washington DC to a cold reception from his estranged father, who immediately enrolls him in military boarding school.

Van, Trotsky's handsome Dutch secretary, arrives at the household and Shepherd develops an intense, consuming infatuation for him.

Kahlo takes Shepherd to the ancient Aztec pyramid at Teotihuacán, where he shares his dream of writing about ordinary Aztec people.

Van departs for New York after marrying an American woman, and Shepherd's heartfelt farewell letter to him is thrown in the trash unread.

Shepherd realizes he accidentally left Rivera's letter criticizing Trotsky on the desk where Trotsky could find it, causing Trotsky to move out.

Rivera publishes a New York Times editorial explaining his personal falling-out with Leon Trotsky and his resignation from the Fourth International.

Trotsky explains to Shepherd how Stalin tricked him into missing Lenin's state funeral, ensuring Stalin's own rise to power.

Police seize all of Shepherd's personal notebooks and his unfinished novel manuscript during their investigation of Trotsky's assassination.

Shepherd learns his father has died in Washington DC and inherits a Chevrolet Roadster, which becomes a prized symbol of American freedom.

Shepherd earns enough from his wartime art transport work to purchase his own house in Asheville, the first home he can call his own.

Shepherd receives a letter from HUAC demanding he sign a loyalty oath to the United States, alarming his lawyer Artie Gold.

Shepherd burns his notebook documenting his years at the Potomac Academy to destroy any evidence that could be used against him.

Shepherd's publisher agrees to release his third novel under contract but refuses to provide any publicity for it due to his Communist associations.

Shepherd and Mrs. Brown return to Isla Pixol, where Leandro greets a grown-up Shepherd warmly and calls him brother.

Mrs. Brown finds a cryptic note from Frida Kahlo in a trunk of Shepherd's belongings suggesting he may still be alive.

Throughout his life, Harrison Shepherd is shaped less by grand political events than by quiet pivotal moments—a cold reunion with his estranged father, an unrequited infatuation, an accidental mistake that altered the course of history around him. His years with Kahlo's circle sharpen his understanding of power and corruption, as when Trotsky reveals exactly how Stalin's cunning secured his own rise to power after Lenin's death. The aftermath of Trotsky's assassination strips Shepherd of everything he has written, only for Frida Kahlo's hidden act of loyalty to restore his voice years later in Asheville. As the Red Scare tightens its grip, Shepherd makes a series of increasingly desperate choices—burning incriminating notebooks, watching his publisher abandon him—that signal his dwindling freedom. His return to Isla Pixol is both an escape and a final reckoning, and whether he swam through the lacuna to a new life or drowned is never resolved. Mrs. Brown's discovery of Frida's cryptic parting note offers the story's last, ambiguous glimmer of hope.