Desiree accompanies her grandfather Nolan to Paris as part of his plan to die by assisted suicide in Switzerland.

Nolan dies of natural causes on the train to Zurich, just short of their destination.

January discovers she is pregnant while learning her friends vacationed in Martinique without her.

Desiree returns to New York from LA after selling Nolan's house, having inherited his real estate fortune.

Dale sexually assaults Nakia at a Manhattan nightclub during a celebratory night out with friends.

Nakia tells Desiree she feels out of place in New York and plans to move back to Los Angeles.

Nakia opens Safe House Café in Los Angeles using a loan from her parents.

Miguel's sudden return forces Nakia to reinstate him, effectively demoting Reina from her expanded kitchen responsibilities.

Reina confronts Nakia about the demotion, accuses her of treating them as unequal, and ends their relationship.

Desiree flies to California and finds January suffering from severe postpartum depression and a painful physical prolapse.

January and Desiree flee with baby Brook to Nakia's house in Inglewood, and January resolves to leave Morris permanently.

The four friends travel to Chicago together, where Nakia is a finalist for a prestigious culinary award.

Danielle calls Nakia's phone to ask for Desiree's number, and a distraught Jay answers to reveal that Nakia has died.

Nakia is shot with rubber bullets on the Sixth Street Bridge during the Bunker Hill Uprisings and dies from her injuries.

Desiree and Danielle reunite on a bench in Meridian Hill Park as Danielle's twin daughters wait to meet their aunt.

The novel opens with Desiree Richard accompanying her grandfather Nolan on a journey to Paris and then Switzerland, where he plans to die by assisted suicide — a plan that ends when he dies of natural causes on the train. A decade later, the four friends' lives are in flux: January is unexpectedly pregnant and alone in Harlem, Nakia is building a restaurant empire in Los Angeles, and Desiree is drifting through an inherited fortune and a dangerous secret affair. A postpartum crisis brings Desiree racing to January's side in California, and a celebratory trip to Chicago for Nakia's culinary award nomination captures the group at a rare crossroads. The novel's devastating turn arrives when Danielle calls Nakia's phone to find her sister and learns instead that Nakia has died from injuries suffered during a police crackdown at a protest. The story closes on a note of painful renewal as Desiree and her estranged biological sister finally reunite in a Washington DC park.

The headline events that drive the novel's central story.

Nolan hints to Desiree that he may have fathered an unknown child in France during his time as a WWII soldier.

Desiree calls Danielle from Paris to tell her of Nolan's plan; Danielle warns Desiree she will have to live with this decision alone.

January encounters a Harriet Tubman statue wearing a pink pussy hat in Harlem and laughs despite her anxiety.

Desiree hosts a night out at a Manhattan nightclub to celebrate selling Nolan's house with her friends and Morris's friends.

Desiree finds a photo on Chika's Facebook confirming he knew Danielle and texts him anyway, beginning their secret affair.

Monique is appointed to a university committee tasked with addressing the history of former enslaved laborers' quarters on a Southern campus.

The university committee rejects a community petition about enslavement and approves a sanitized display; Monique refuses to have her name on the final placard.

Nakia and Reina begin a secret affair after stopping together at Kenneth Hahn Park following a successful dinner service.

Danielle arrives at Nolan's Leimert Park house six months after his death and accuses Desiree of being too eager to help him die.

Desiree gives Danielle a small box with the last of Nolan's ashes; Danielle breaks down sobbing, takes the box, and drives away.

A magnitude 4.6 earthquake strikes during the Group of 7 dinner party at Jay's condo, forcing everyone to evacuate to the courtyard.

Nakia and Monique argue late into the night about Monique leveraging Jay's connections at Tru Talk to pursue online fame.

Monique publishes a blog post announcing her father's death and reflecting on her past failures to show up for friends in need.

Donnie Gleeson tells Nakia at the Chicago award mixer that the culinary industry's interest in diversity has faded and she will not win.

Nakia's family offers January the use of Nakia's house on a rent-to-own basis, and January accepts in a tearful video call with Desiree.

The novel's secondary storylines reveal the hidden costs of every major relationship in the book. Nolan's cryptic wartime confession and Desiree's fraught call to Danielle in Paris set the tone for a family defined by secrets and fractured communication, while January's solitary walk through Harlem captures the absurdity she must endure to survive her circumstances. Back in 2012, the celebratory night out that gives birth to Desiree's affair also marks the beginning of Nakia's alienation in New York, and Danielle's silent, tearful goodbye at Nolan's house six months later cements the sisters' estrangement. Years later, Monique's experience on a university committee confronting the erasure of enslaved people's history leaves her professionally isolated, and a dinner party earthquake becomes the backdrop for a bitter argument between Nakia and Monique about ambition and authenticity. The pool closes in the aftermath of Nakia's death, as Nakia's family quietly offers her home to January — a gesture of love that transforms grief into shelter.

Significant moments of rupture, discovery, and connection across two decades.

Nolan eats forbidden sweets at the Tuileries Garden, calling them his 'first last meal' before his planned death the following day.

January texts Desiree that she plans to write Morris a letter asking him to relinquish all parental rights to their unborn child.

Nakia brings Reina to meet her friend Arielle, and Reina reveals how she came to the US at sixteen and chose to stay.

Desiree finds a flight confirmation on Chika's laptop proving he and Danielle took a romantic vacation to Cancún together.

Desiree intercepts a package Danielle mailed to Chika containing an Erykah Badu T-shirt and a note saying she is moving.

Chika overhears Desiree singing a Smokey Robinson song he associates only with Danielle and realizes the two women must be connected.

Desiree leaves Chika's apartment for the last time, pausing in the hallway to listen to a neighbor playing Bach through the wall.

January reveals to Desiree during the drive to Nakia's house that she already knows about Desiree's past affair with Chika.

Monique publishes a poem about the accumulating weight of losing loved ones to premature death across the years of middle age.

A flashback reveals Danielle recognized Desiree's affair with Chika in 2013 when the returned T-shirt still carried his scent.

Danielle's meeting with her father Terry in Central Park ends abruptly when he blames Sherelle and reveals he has a separate family.

January reads the news of Nakia's death on her phone during a blind date, feeling a part of herself permanently disappear.

Desiree visits a medium who tells her Nakia's soul is at peace; unsatisfied, Desiree resolves to reconnect with Danielle for Nakia's sake.

Monique's viral confrontation with a vendor harassing an unhoused woman in Bryant Park drives her to decide to leave the United States.

Nakia drives downtown during the Bunker Hill Uprisings to volunteer distributing food, believing people still need to eat despite the curfew.

The novel's deepest turns are often quiet — a song overheard, a package intercepted, a scent on a returned shirt — but each one permanently redirects a character's life. Nolan's last indulgence at the Tuileries signals a man at peace with what he has chosen, while January's decision to send Morris a letter sets her on a course toward a harder but more honest life. The summer affair between Desiree and Chika is undone by a chain of small discoveries that expose how thoroughly the past can compromise the present, and Danielle's 2013 revelation that she was right to distrust her sister deepens a wound that takes over a decade to close. The friends' grief after Nakia's death fractures each of them differently — January finds out during a forgettable blind date, Desiree chases an impossible resurrection, and Monique's street confrontation in Bryant Park crystallizes her despair into a decision to leave the country. The pool closes with Nakia's final act of care: driving into the city to feed people during an uprising, choosing community over safety one last time.

The discoveries, decisions, and emotional shifts that quietly reshape every life in the novel.