Wooden boxes appear on doorsteps worldwide, each containing a string that indicates the owner's lifespan.

The government officially confirms that string length corresponds to how long a person will live.

Nina and Maura open their boxes and discover Maura's string is far shorter than Nina's.

The STAR Initiative is announced, mandating string disclosure and restricting short-stringers from active military duty.

Jack and Javier secretly switch their strings so Javier can pursue active military service as planned.

Hank throws himself in front of a bullet aimed at Anthony Rollins at a campaign rally.

Hank dies from the gunshot wound, with Ben at his side.

Nina proposes to Maura at the statue of Juliet in Verona, and Maura accepts.

Jack grabs the microphone at Anthony's event and publicly denounces his uncle's anti-short-stringer campaign.

Ben tells Amie he is her anonymous pen pal and reveals his short string to her.

Nina and Maura get married at City Hall.

Javier dies on a rescue mission, sacrificing himself so his fellow soldiers can escape.

Jack brings Javier's letter to the Johnson Foundation and asks Maura to leak it to the press.

Nina delivers a eulogy at Maura's funeral, nearly a decade after the boxes first arrived.

Amie and Ben are killed in a car accident, and Nina opens Amie's box to find a short string.

Wooden boxes arrive worldwide and force everyone to confront their mortality, including Nina and Maura, who discover their strings are mismatched in length. As short-stringer discrimination grows and the STAR Initiative institutionalizes it, Jack and Javier secretly switch strings so Javier can serve in the military. Hank sacrifices his life protecting Anthony Rollins at a campaign rally, and his death reshapes the lives of those around him. Nina proposes to Maura in Italy and the two women marry before Maura's time runs short. Jack eventually breaks with his family by publicly denouncing his uncle, while Javier's death overseas becomes the catalyst for dismantling the STAR Initiative. The story closes with Amie and Ben's sudden deaths and Nina discovering, finally, that Amie had always carried a short string.

The string crisis from first arrival to final loss.

Ben lands at a New York airport after an overnight flight and first learns about the boxes.

Amie assigns her class Tuck Everlasting and notices Greek mythology books selling out at bookstores.

Ben and Maura both attend the short-stringer support group for the first time on the same evening.

The support group leader suggests members write letters; Ben writes one and leaves it on the classroom floor.

Amie finds Ben's anonymous letter on her classroom floor and writes back, beginning their correspondence.

Hank resigns from the hospital after being unable to offer short-stringer patients meaningful treatment.

Anthony reveals his long string on live television during a presidential debate.

Maura discovers Nina has been secretly researching short-stringer issues online and confronts her.

Maura tells Nina about her longing for children; they share their secrets and grow closer than ever.

Ben forgives Claire for ending their relationship while hitting golf balls at a driving range.

Jack steps in to defend a short-stringer canvasser being harassed by two men and meets Lea.

Amie apologizes to Nina after being disinvited from the wedding and the sisters reconcile.

The global Strung Together solidarity event takes place in Times Square and cities around the world.

Lea goes into labor and the entire support group gathers at the hospital for the birth of her twins.

Nina adopts Amie and Ben's two children and brings them to visit the bench Amie engraved in Central Park.

Ben's arrival home from an overnight flight drops him into a world transformed by the boxes, just as Amie begins quietly exploring their meaning through books with her students. When Ben and Maura meet at the same support group, a chain of connections begins: a letter Ben leaves behind finds its way to Amie and sparks an anonymous correspondence that will shape both their lives. Meanwhile, Nina and Maura navigate the secrets they keep from each other until honesty draws them closer, and Hank quietly steps away from a hospital that can no longer give him purpose. As the Strung Together movement rises, Jack takes his first act of courage defending a stranger, Amie mends her relationship with Nina, and the full support group gathers to welcome Lea's twins into the world. The novel's final image of Nina caring for Amie and Ben's children, visiting their memorials across the city, brings these secondary threads to a tender close.

The supporting journeys and bonds that carry the story forward.

Scientists' leaked research reveals the strings cannot be cut or identified, forcing the world to accept they are real.

A newlywed groom jumps off a bridge in Verona, choosing injury over surviving his short-stringed bride.

North Korea mandates that citizens turn over their unopened boxes to the government.

Ben confides in Hank after a support group meeting, and Hank reveals he has less than a year left to live.

A short-stringer detonates a bomb outside the Capitol following a presidential debate.

It is revealed that Claire secretly opened Ben's box without permission and broke up with him over his short string.

Jack tells Katherine he has a short string, concealing that he and Javier secretly switched their strings.

Javier confronts Jack for allowing Anthony to exploit short-stringer suffering as a political tool; they argue.

In Venice, a mask shop owner tells Maura and Nina that most Italians chose not to open their boxes.

Ben tells his parents about his short string, and they immediately pull him into a fierce embrace.

Ben visits the spot in Central Park where Hank was shot and meets the young woman who received Hank's donated lungs.

At the wedding reception, Amie dances with Ben and then flees outside, overwhelmed by fear of losing him.

Amie hears a bicyclist playing "Que Sera, Sera" outside the reception and runs back inside to find Ben.

Amie passes the Van Woolsey building on her way to meet Ben and lets her old fantasy go forever.

Nina dances with Amie and Ben's adopted children in Central Park as the bicyclist plays "Que Sera, Sera" one last time.

From the moment science confirms the strings are real and undeniable, characters are forced into a series of pivotal choices and hard revelations. Government overreach appears first abroad and then through domestic policy, while violence reshapes the political landscape and pushes short-stringers further to the margins. Hidden truths begin to surface — Claire's betrayal of Ben's privacy, Jack's concealment from his family, and Javier's mounting frustration with Jack's passivity — and each revelation deepens the personal cost of secrecy. A trip to Venice offers Maura and Nina an unexpected perspective on how the world might respond differently to the boxes, while Ben's encounter at the place where Hank was shot gives him a new understanding of what a short life can leave behind. The final act carries Amie to a crossroads at the Van Woolsey building, where she chooses love over fantasy, and closes with Nina dancing freely in the park, choosing to live as a short-stringer would.