Ayers takes Maia to lunch. Mick arrives and joins them, questioning Ayers about her date with Baker and confessing he still loves her. Ayers realizes she doesn’t know Baker’s last name. Maia observes the tension between Ayers and Mick with maturity and quotes her mother’s philosophy that love is messy, complicated, and unfair.

Baker is stunned by Anna and Floyd’s arrival. Anna informs Cash, then Irene, that she is leaving Baker for Louisa. She tells Baker she and Floyd are flying back to Iowa City on Friday. After Baker drops Anna at her hotel, he and Cash have a fierce argument about Ayers and their lifelong rivalry. In retaliation, Cash reveals his stores have failed. When Baker laughs, Cash storms out, gets drunk at a bar, and calls Ayers. He reveals that Baker is married with a son and then confesses his own love for her. Before hanging up, Cash tells her his father’s full name: Russell Steele.

On Wednesday, Huck takes Maia on his boat for a private memorial for Rosie. At the crash site, Maia deploys a memorial buoy and drops two of Rosie’s favorite bath bombs into the water—one for her mother and one for Russ. Huck learns that Rosie left significant savings for Maia. Maia reveals that Rosie and Russ had recently told Maia he was her father, and that she and her mother nicknamed him the Pirate. She says her mother promised to tell her the whole story when she was older. Huck tells her the rest of the truth—that Russ was married to Irene and had two sons. He explains that Russ’s other family is on the island and wants to meet her. Maia agrees, on the condition that she can leave whenever she wants.

The villa’s property manager delivers a box containing Russ’s ashes to the villa. Later, Irene gathers her sons in the kitchen. She opens the box, and the reality of Russ’s death and betrayal causes her to break down, screaming and flinging the bag of ashes across the room. She makes her sons promise never to lead secret lives like their father. She shows them the locked bedroom with the name Maia on the wall and tells them Russ has a daughter on the island. Stunned, Baker calls Ayers and leaves a long, confessional voicemail, telling her the entire truth. Irene gets a text from Huck, confirming he will bring Maia to meet them the next day.

Flashbacks show recent events from Maia’s perspective. She asks Ayers about the term “love child” in an attempt to understand the island’s perspective on her and her mother. Without Rosie, she feels “empty—like if someone did surgery and cut her open, they would find nothing inside her but sad, stale air” (278). She grieves for her mother and worries about things left unsaid between them. She also reflects on the ways she and her mother were different, grappling with the parts of her mother than live on in her and the parts of herself that are wholly her own.

When Huck tells her the truth about Russ’s other family, Maia attempts to reconcile the deep connection she feels to Rosie and the acute grief of her loss with the disconnect she feels from the Steeles, who are strangers and yet related to her by blood. She agrees to meet them, insisting that both Huck and Ayers accompany her. On Thursday, Ayers drives Maia to the villa. Overcome with nerves, Maia throws up in the driveway. After composing herself, she walks into the house with Huck and Ayers and is introduced to Irene, Baker, and Cash.

In the villa kitchen, Irene is struck by Maia’s resemblance to Russ’s mother, Milly, and decides she must go home to tell Milly the truth. When Irene questions Maia about Russ’s work, Maia says she doesn’t know what he did, just that he was “away a lot” (292). Irene bristles and emphasizes that Russ wasn’t away during those times; he was at home. Maia diffuses the tension by sharing Rosie’s wisdom that love is messy, a sentiment everyone shares. The moment is broken by a dog barking.

Irene asks for a moment alone with Huck and Maia, so Baker and Cash take Ayers outside. By the pool, Ayers confronts both brothers, calling them liars like their father. Baker and Cash attempt to defend their actions, but Ayers is unmoved. She condemns Russ and accuses them of using her for information. Ayers then announces she is back with Mick, ending her relationship with them both.

The group reassembles and walks to the villa’s private beach to scatter Russ’s ashes. They perform the ritual in silence. Irene saves some ashes for Milly and tells Maia again that she looks just like her great-grandmother. As he walks back to the villa, Cash reflects on Ayers’s words about his father. While remembering some of his father’s good qualities, Cash ultimately feels relieved to be free of the ashes and the painful memories.

Irene, Huck, and Maia discuss finances. Irene offers to provide for Maia, but Huck politely declines, insisting he can provide for her and explaining her ambitions to attend a top university and start a microlending business. Later, Huck drives Ayers home. She tells him she was briefly dating Baker and that she plans to get a petroglyph tattoo like Rosie’s. Huck tells her that loving and losing someone on the island has earned her the right to a local’s tattoo. Moved, Ayers asks Huck to go with her, and he agrees.

Baker goes back to Houston with Anna and Floyd, and Irene and Cash fly home to Iowa with the remaining ashes. Irene remembers her farewell boat trip with Huck the day before, when he dove for a conch shell as a gift for her. Upon landing, they learn that Milly is dying. They rush to her retirement community and sit vigil until she passes away. They both receive calls from a Puerto Rican area code, but are too preoccupied to answer. Meanwhile, on St. John, Huck receives a call from FBI Agent Colette Vasco, who informs him the helicopter crash is now being re-investigated because they suspect foul play.