51 pages • 1 hour read
The Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club
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Chapters 1-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness and death.
Chapter 1 Summary: “Mari”
In 2016, Marigold Violet Starwood—Mari—travels from Los Angeles to Martha’s Vineyard to meet Elizabeth Devereaux, an acclaimed painter now in her nineties. Mari is 34 years old, and her mother, Nancy Starwood, recently died unexpectedly of a brain aneurysm. Mari and her mother were close, and Mari remembers them browsing Los Angeles thrift shops together. Mari wears a bracelet of gold hearts that used to belong to her mother.
Mari calls her inattentive boyfriend Nate, but he doesn’t answer. With her phone now out of battery, Mari goes to Vineyard Bikes to try to contact Mrs. Devereaux using the shop’s phone. She flirts with Ronan White, who works at the bike shop and paints.
Mari plans to take a private painting class with Mrs. Devereaux, then fly back to Los Angeles later tonight. Ronan thinks Mari should stay longer. Mari studied Mrs. Devereaux’s work in school, which prompted her to write a letter. Though a “private person,” Mrs. Devereaux responded and invited her to her place, Copper Pond Farm.
Fortuitously, Mrs. Devereaux appears and drives Mari to Copper Pond Farm, which has a two-story cottage and a barn. The property is a dairy farm and once grew potatoes. It also features many beetlebung trees.
