The Lost Summers of Newport

In September 2019, architectural historian Andie Figuero arrives at Sprague Hall, a dilapidated Newport mansion, to host the reality show Makeover Mansion. She desperately needs the job to support her six-year-old nephew, Petey, whom she is raising. Her producer and mentor, Marc Albertson, is absent, so Andie enters the house alone. She overhears siblings Luke and Hadley Sprague-Armstrong arguing; Hadley wants to sell the estate, but Luke insists on honoring the contract their reclusive grandmother, Lucia “Lucky” Sprague, signed with the show. Luke gives Andie a rushed tour of the three rooms slated for renovation, establishing strict rules: no one can approach Lucky on the third floor, film at the boathouse, or include family members on camera. Annoyed by his dismissive attitude, Andie walks toward the forbidden boathouse and feels herself being watched from a third-floor window.

In June 1899, Ellen Daniels arrives at Sprague Hall with a forged reference, hiding from a dangerous past. She has been hired as a music teacher for the young heiress Maybelle Sprague. Maybelle’s stepbrother and guardian, John Sprague, informs Ellen of his plan to marry Maybelle to a visiting Italian nobleman, Prince di Conti. Ellen meets her charge, a shy seventeen-year-old who is devoted to her late mother’s cameo brooch. Seeing Maybelle’s vulnerability, Ellen resolves to help her secure a respectable marriage with the prince.

In July 1957, Lucia “Lucky” Sprague attends a yacht club party, bored by her socialite life and her husband, Stuyvesant “Stuy” Sprague. She shares a flirtatious moment with her old friend, the architect Teddy Winthrop. The party is interrupted by a call from the hospital informing her that Stuy’s father, Dudley Sprague, is dying. Before leaving, Lucky discovers Stuy being intimate with a waitress on the club’s deck. At the hospital, the belligerent Dudley taunts Lucky about Stuy’s infidelities. When Lucky reminds him that the house belongs to her grandmother, Maybelle, Dudley cryptically threatens to expose a secret from the past, telling her to “ask your grandmother.”

Back in 2019, filming begins chaotically. Andie is joined by her best friend, technical consultant Meghan Black, and must also care for Petey on set. Marc finally arrives, drunk, and forces a humiliated Andie to wear a pink hard hat and tool belt mandated by the network. Luke gives Petey a toy sailboat from the boathouse, but Andie, triggered by a painful memory, angrily snatches it back, breaking it. In 1899, as the household prepares for a party to welcome the prince, Ellen encounters a man in the loggia whom she mistakes for a hired musician and scolds for his tardiness. The man is revealed to be the Prince di Conti, Don Sebastiano, who is amused by the mistake and intervenes to save her job.

In 1957, after leaving the hospital, Lucky and Stuy have a vicious fight that their seven-year-old daughter, Joanie, overhears. Later, Lucky finds her grandmother, Maybelle, whom she calls “Nonna,” wandering near the boathouse in a confused state. Stuy apologizes for his behavior, and he and Lucky reconcile passionately. In 2019, while filming in Maybelle’s Gothic-style bedroom, Andie and Meghan discover a cozy alcove. Andie trips on a loose floorboard, revealing a hidden trinket box with the initials “MSG.” Luke confiscates it, deeming it private. The famous historian Teddy Winthrop, a friend of Lucky’s, arrives for his daily visit.

During the 1899 welcome dinner, Maybelle overcomes her stage fright with Ellen’s encouragement and gives a beautiful performance of “Where’er You Walk.” The prince publicly praises her, securing her social success, but directs his gaze at Ellen during his toast. The next morning, John Sprague informs Ellen that the prince has requested another musical evening. In 1957, Lucky is disappointed to get her period, ending her hopes of pregnancy. At a tense Tiffany Ball committee meeting, Lucky feels increasingly alienated by the social pressures of her world and the abrasive Prunella Pratt Schuyler Potts. Afterward, a distraught Lucky is comforted by Teddy on the cliff path, and they embrace. Lucky believes Stuy sees them from the house.

In 2019, Andie’s production notebook goes missing. She follows mysterious sounds to the library and finds it. Hadley arrives and demands the production stop, leading to a filmed confrontation with Luke. Marc summons Andie to the yacht club, where he tells her the network wants a “sexier” show and that she must get Lucky on camera discussing Stuy. To do this, he says, she needs to find someone named “Joanie” before passing out drunk.

At Bailey’s Beach in 1899, Ellen sees Frank Pratt, Prunella Schuyler’s cousin, being overly familiar with Maybelle. The prince joins Ellen, admitting his marriage is a financial transaction to save his estate. Ellen’s only hat is thrown into the ocean. In 1957, Lucky finds Nonna by the boathouse again. Later, she and Joanie encounter Teddy, who invites them to run away to Italy with him. Stuy’s sister Louise and her husband Reggie arrive, summoned by Dudley, who is rewriting his will.

In 2019, Andie meets Luke and Hadley’s mother, Joanie Sprague, a serene, hippie-like woman who supports the TV show. Joanie tells Andie that her father, Stuy, disappeared under mysterious circumstances, which she believes was a suicide. She confirms that the way to get Lucky’s cooperation is through Teddy. Luke reveals he is a doctor who worked with Doctors Without Borders, but Andie makes a cutting remark about his privilege, hurting him. In 1899, the prince sends Ellen an expensive replacement hat. Prunella sees it and assumes Ellen is the prince’s mistress, a rumor she seems eager to spread to help her cousin Frank marry Maybelle. Ellen returns the hat and receives a mysterious note summoning her to the rose arbor at midnight.

At the 1957 Tiffany Ball, Lucky visits Dudley, who threatens to expose her as a “fraud” and reveal a secret about the boathouse. Later at Marble House, Stuy confronts Lucky in the teahouse about neglecting her family. After he storms off, Lucky and Teddy kiss passionately as a thunderstorm begins. In 2019, Andie and Meghan find Maybelle’s trinket box again, which contains love letters from Frank Pratt in a false bottom. Meghan proposes a new haunted angle for the show.

In the rose arbor, Ellen and the prince realize they were lured there by fake notes, a plot by Prunella and Frank. They kiss passionately in the rain. Ellen confesses her true identity, Eileen O’Donnell, and her past involving a Boston gangster. The prince comforts her and professes his love. In the boathouse loft in 1957, Lucky and Teddy make love. A drunk and furious Stuy bursts in. In the ensuing fight, Stuy falls from the loft and is killed when he lands on a boat hook. As they stand over the body, a lucid Nonna appears and says, “We’ve got a body to hide. I’ve done this before.”

In 2019, Andie and Luke spend the night together. The next morning, Marc arrives to announce that Makeover Mansion has been canceled. A mudslide then damages the boathouse, revealing two sets of skeletal remains. In 1899, at her engagement party, Maybelle sings, after which the prince sings a love aria directly to Ellen. He asks her to come to Italy, but she refuses. Ellen then finds a note from Maybelle, revealing she is eloping with Frank Pratt from the shore near the boathouse.

By October 1957, three months after Stuy’s death, Lucky is wracked with guilt. Prunella reveals that Frank Pratt was beaten by thugs and never made it to the planned elopement with Maybelle. Lucky tells Teddy she must stay in Newport as her penance. Nonna then leads them to the boathouse and reveals a hidden collection of priceless di Conti family paintings, her true inheritance, which she saved from the fascists.

Ellen, the prince, and John Sprague rush to the shore in 1899 to stop Maybelle. When Sprague lunges at her in a rage, she falls into the water and drowns. Horrified at losing the fortune, Sprague devises a plan: Ellen, who resembles Maybelle, will take her place. The prince agrees, and a guilt-ridden Ellen accepts.

By November 2019, one set of remains is identified as Stuy. The other, believed to be Maybelle, cannot be identified, but DNA proves she is not related to Lucky. Lucky and Luke visit Andie, revealing they are selling Sprague Hall to fund a center for single mothers. Lucky and Teddy are marrying and moving to Italy. They offer to finance a new historical TV series for Andie to host, investigating the true identity of the woman who became the Principessa di Conti. Luke, who is returning to medicine, and Andie begin a relationship.

In the epilogue, Ellen arrives at the Palazzo di Conti in Italy in 1899, having fully assumed Maybelle’s identity. She is filled with guilt but is comforted by her husband, Sebastiano. She realizes she is pregnant, cementing her new life.