Eoin, dying of cancer, asks Annie to scatter his ashes in Ireland and give her finished novel to a mysterious him.

Annie rows onto Lough Gill to scatter Eoin's ashes and three men on a passing barge shoot her.

Thomas saves Annie from Lough Gill and rows her to shore, calling her by the name Anne.

Annie wakes in Thomas's home to find six-year-old Eoin at her bedside and realizes she has traveled to 1921.

Annie tells Thomas the British will call a truce in eight days but refuses to explain how she knows.

Annie pretends to be a Southern American woman and fools British Tans who are searching the barn for hidden weapons.

Annie meets Michael Collins at a Dublin wedding and takes a photograph with him—the same photo found in Grandfather Eoin's belongings.

Annie panics at a reception in the Gresham Hotel and demands Collins leave as smoke begins pouring through the vents.

Annie recites the Irish folktale of Niamh and Oisín in Gaeilge to Collins, Thomas, and Joe O'Reilly to explain her impossible origins.

Thomas proposes to Annie on Christmas morning with two wedding bands, and the two marry in a simple ceremony.

The Anglo-Irish Treaty passes after fierce debate, De Valera resigns as President, and civil war erupts across Ireland.

Liam corners Annie at gunpoint and forces her to Lough Gill, pushing her into the lake so she vanishes back to 2001.

Jim Donnelly rescues Annie from Lough Gill in 2001, and a hospital visit confirms she is still pregnant.

Annie inherits Garvagh Glebe and discovers that Thomas spent decades painting obsessive portraits of Anne after her disappearance.

Thomas arrives at the shore of Lough Gill in a boat, having traveled through time to reunite with Annie in 2001.

Annie Gallagher's story begins with her grandfather Eoin's dying wish to have his ashes scattered in Ireland, setting her on a journey that defies time itself. When she is shot on Lough Gill and rescued by doctor Thomas Smith, she wakes to find herself in 1921 Ireland, surrounded by the people her grandfather once described. As she navigates the dangers of revolutionary Ireland, Annie grows close to Thomas and becomes entangled with the iconic figure of Michael Collins, even saving him from an assassination attempt at the Gresham Hotel. After marrying Thomas and living through the fractures of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, Annie is forced back to 2001 by the vengeful Liam Gallagher. The story closes with an extraordinary reunion as Thomas travels through time to find Annie in her own era, finally fulfilling the love they fought to protect.

The central journey from Eoin's death to Annie's reunion with Thomas across time.

Young Annie and Grandfather Eoin listen to the wind together, and Eoin tells her the wind witnesses every person's story.

Annie visits 90-year-old Maeve in Ballinamore, who recognizes Annie's resemblance to Anne and reveals Anne did not die in the Easter Rising.

Annie visits Ballinagar Cemetery and finds gravestones for Declan, Anne, and a man named Thomas Smith.

Annie reviews Eoin's treasured belongings and discovers a personal journal marked T.S. and a photograph of Anne posing beside Michael Collins.

Annie meets teenage Maeve O'Toole working in Thomas's household and recognizes her as the future archivist she met in 2001.

Brigid gives Annie Anne's old clothes and scolds her harshly for having disappeared without telling anyone.

The pawnbroker returns Declan's old pocket watch to Eoin, prompting Annie to wonder if she is changing history or was always part of it.

British soldiers smash the windows of a store selling the Irish Times, and Thomas hurries Annie and Eoin safely into his car.

Annie writes a birthday story about a boat on Lough Gill for young Eoin, and Thomas stays up late illustrating her words.

Thomas leaves for Dublin to attend treaty negotiations, separating from Annie for the first time since her arrival in 1921.

Ben Gallagher arrives unexpectedly at Garvagh Glebe, furious about the upcoming treaty and warning it will bring civil war.

Annie, Thomas, and Eoin return to Dublin to watch the installation of Ireland's new government and the formal dismissal of the Black and Tans.

Annie tries to warn Michael Collins about his future assassination, but Collins calmly refuses the knowledge and accepts his unknown fate.

Annie finds Thomas's old journals in Garvagh Glebe in 2001, including a photograph of herself and Thomas taken together.

Maeve tells Annie she knows Annie Gallagher is the same woman as Anne Smith, who disappeared from Lough Gill decades ago.

Before Annie ever touches Lough Gill, her world is richly built through her grandfather's stories and the fragments of history he leaves behind. Key encounters—with an elderly Maeve, with gravestones and old photographs, with the young Maeve O'Toole in 1921—layer the narrative with connections that span generations. Daily life in revolutionary Ireland unfolds through moments of danger, tenderness, and quiet domesticity, from British soldiers smashing windows to Annie writing Eoin a birthday story. As the political tide shifts with the treaty debates and the installation of a new Irish government, secondary figures like Ben Gallagher and Michael Collins add texture to Annie's choices and fears. Returning to 2001, Annie pieces the full story together through journals, photographs, and the testimony of an old woman who never forgot the Anne she once knew.

The supporting moments that shape Annie's world in both 1921 and 2001.

Eoin shows Annie a coat button that once belonged to revolutionary martyr Seán Mac Diarmada and they look through old family photographs.

Annie realizes she lost her bag of Eoin's treasured family heirlooms in Lough Gill during the shooting on the lake.

Annie teaches child Eoin to tell time on his new watch, echoing her grandfather's words about carrying loved ones always within you.

The local priest announces Anne's return to the parish during Mass to prevent further gossip about her sudden reappearance.

Thomas admits to Annie that he was always drawn to Anne even when she was Declan's wife, and they share their first kiss.

Annie decides to stay permanently in 1921 Ireland after telling Thomas about life in New York and about Eoin as an old man.

Thomas catches Annie just before she disappears into the fog near Lough Gill one afternoon and pulls her safely back to shore.

Michael Collins returns from London and tells Thomas and Annie that England will only offer Ireland Dominion status, not full independence.

Annie confesses her true origins to Thomas, and Thomas records in his journal that he believes she came from the future.

The Irish cabinet votes to ratify the Anglo-Irish Treaty while De Valera publicly denounces the agreement as a betrayal of the nation.

Thomas bans Liam and Ben Gallagher from Garvagh Glebe to protect Annie, threatening Brigid with expulsion if she defies him.

Michael Collins is killed in an ambush in Cork, and Annie writes an alternate history story imagining she had kept him safe that day.

Liam confesses to Thomas that he accidentally shot the real Anne Gallagher to death during the evacuation of the Easter Rising.

Thomas gives Eoin Anne's wedding ring to keep safely until he one day meets his future granddaughter Annie Gallagher.

Thomas's journals reveal Liam was found dead days after pushing Annie into Lough Gill, and a boat washed up carrying the ring and journal.

Every major transformation in the novel hinges on a moment of revelation—a confession, a near-disappearance, a truth finally spoken aloud. From the button that links the Gallaghers to revolutionary martyrs, to Annie teaching child Eoin the very stories he will one day teach her, the novel builds a web of cyclical truths that only reveal their meaning across time. Thomas's admission of his love for Anne, Annie's decision to stay in 1921, and the gradual unraveling of the treaty's consequences all shift the emotional ground beneath the characters. The darkest revelation comes when Liam confesses that he was the one who accidentally killed the real Anne Gallagher during the Easter Rising evacuation, a secret that reframes the entire story. Thomas's response—entrusting Eoin with Anne's ring to pass down to a granddaughter not yet born—transforms grief into an act of extraordinary faith across time.

The decisive discoveries and emotional shifts that change everything for Annie and Thomas.