Sophie arrives in San Francisco to marry Martin Hocking, a widower she has never met who paid for her passage.

Sophie and Martin are married at the San Francisco courthouse on the same day they first meet.

Sophie, Martin, and Kat move into a grand three-story house on Polk Street in San Francisco.

Sophie grows close to traumatized, silent Kat by caring for her daily and singing Gaelic lullabies.

A young pregnant woman named Belinda Bigelow arrives at the Polk Street house asking for her husband James.

Sophie and Belinda compare Martin's stories and realize they are both married to the same man.

Sophie picks the lock on Martin's forbidden desk and finds false certificates, duplicate identities, and a wedding photo linking him to a murdered woman.

Sophie finds a letter from Candace hidden in Martin's desk, proving she is alive in a Tucson medical facility.

Martin returns home and threatens pregnant Belinda with a letter opener before Kat pushes him down the stairs.

The devastating San Francisco earthquake strikes as Sophie and the others flee the collapsing Polk Street house.

Belinda gives birth to a healthy girl named Sarah at the makeshift hospital inside the Mechanics' Pavilion.

Sophie and Kat travel to Tucson and reunite Kat with Candace, the mother Martin falsely claimed was dead.

Sophie persuades a dying Candace to come live at Belinda's Loralei Inn rather than go to a cousin in Texas.

Marshal Logan confronts Sophie with documents proving her true identity as Saoirse McGough rather than Sophie Whalen.

A grown Kat watches her father tried and sentenced to death for murder under the name Clayton Sharpe.

Sophie Whalen travels from New York to San Francisco to marry Martin Hocking, a mysterious widower with a traumatized young daughter named Kat. She builds a tender bond with Kat while Martin remains cold and secretive, until a pregnant woman named Belinda arrives claiming Martin is her husband James. Sophie and Belinda break into Martin's forbidden desk and discover his false identities, his murder of a woman named Annabeth, and proof that Kat's mother Candace is still alive in a Tucson facility. Martin returns and threatens them before Kat pushes him down the stairs, and moments later the San Francisco earthquake erupts. Sophie navigates the disaster, helps Belinda give birth, and eventually reunites Kat with Candace, but a federal marshal soon exposes the truth of Sophie's own hidden identity and forces a long-buried confession.

The core story of Sophie, Martin, and the lives he destroyed.

Sophie escapes a crowded New York tenement by answering Martin Hocking's newspaper advertisement for a wife and mother.

Sophie and Kat ride a cable car together for the first time on the way to their new Polk Street home.

Neighbor Libby visits and asks intrusive questions about Sophie's mail-order marriage and Martin's suspicious work habits.

Sophie knocks on Martin's bedroom door one night and initiates their first sexual encounter.

Martin installs a brick vault in the boiler room under the pretense of storing a cousin's hair tonic for baldness.

Logan reveals that a man matching Martin's description was seen leaving San Rafaela the day before the earthquake.

Sophie and Belinda break open the glass bottles in the vault and discover they contain gold ore, not hair tonic.

Sophie telephones the Tucson medical facility and confirms that Candace is alive and able to receive visitors.

Sophie and Kat become separated from Belinda and newborn Sarah while fleeing the fires spreading after the earthquake.

Sophie and Kat reunite with Belinda and baby Sarah at the Golden Gate Park refugee camp.

The group travels by ferry to Oakland and then by train to Belinda's Loralei Inn in San Rafaela.

Candace reveals that Martin kept her institutionalized because he wanted her to die sooner so Kat could inherit her fortune faster.

Candace says a brief goodbye to Kat, tells her Sophie is her mother now, and departs in a private coach.

Neighbor Libby spots Sophie at the ruins of the Polk Street house and insists on marching her to the police station.

Logan reveals that Martin's real name is Clyde Merriman, a sadist who tortured animals and arranged his sister's near-hanging as a boy.

These events trace the quieter but pivotal moments that frame Sophie's journey from a New York tenement to San Francisco and beyond. From her first cable car ride with Kat to neighbor Libby's meddling questions, the texture of daily life with Martin slowly reveals a marriage built on performance and concealment. Martin's installation of a secret vault, the discovery of gold ore inside it, and the revelation of his movements before the earthquake fill in the picture of his long-running scheme. After the earthquake scatters the group, their reunion at the refugee camp and eventual journey to Belinda's inn provide a fragile new beginning. Candace's dying confessions, her farewell to Kat, and Libby's interference at the ruins set the stage for Sophie's final reckoning with federal authorities.

The hidden details that shaped Sophie's world and Martin's unraveling.

Federal Marshal Logan opens his investigation by asking Sophie why she waited six weeks to report her husband missing.

Sophie notices the faint smell of women's cologne on Martin after one of his trips and suspects he visits brothels.

Kat's former caretaker Mrs. Lewis reveals that Martin left the child alone in their boarding house room for days at a time.

Belinda faints at the sight of Sophie and Martin's wedding photograph, recognizing Martin as her husband James Bigelow.

Sophie and Belinda find newspaper obituary clippings in Martin's desk with wealthy daughters' names circled, exposing his method for choosing victims.

Kat retrieves Candace's letter from Martin's desk and reads it aloud, weeping and whispering the word Mama.

Martin tells Sophie he knows she is fleeing her own past, even though she has never spoken of it to anyone.

Sophie tears a page from her father's treasured word book to post a search notice for Belinda at the refugee camp.

Sophie tells Candace that Martin is presumed dead in the earthquake and reveals the truth about his other wives and crimes.

Candace reveals she was the one who pressed for marriage after becoming pregnant, and that her father threatened to disinherit her.

Sophie shares a partial truth with Candace about her violent first husband Colm, saying only that he drowned after a drunken fall.

Logan accuses Sophie of being Martin's accomplice, pointing out that she alone among his wives had no money of her own.

Logan reveals that Martin fashioned a noose his heartbroken sister nearly used to kill herself, and then refused to save her.

Sophie confesses to Logan the full truth: that she killed abusive Colm and fled Ireland under her dead infant sister's name.

Logan closes the investigation, urges Sophie to go home and raise her daughter, and presses his handkerchief into her hand.

This pool captures the pivotal discoveries and hard choices that drive the novel's deeper drama. From Sophie's quiet suspicion that Martin visits brothels to the staggering moment Belinda recognizes her husband in a wedding photograph, the truth about Martin is exposed layer by layer. Key turning points include Kat weeping over her mother's letter, Martin coldly acknowledging he knows Sophie's secret, and Sophie choosing to leave an injured Martin behind as the earthquake begins. The investigation scenes reveal the full horror of Martin's crimes and the full weight of Sophie's own hidden past, ultimately forcing her to confess to a sympathetic marshal who chooses mercy over the letter of the law.