The Summer Wives: A Novel

In the summer of 1951, Miranda Schuyler arrives on Winthrop Island, an exclusive enclave off the New England coast, as a schoolgirl from the margins of high society. After her mother marries Hugh Fisher, whose summer house overlooks the island's famous lighthouse, Miranda enters a world of privilege and social hierarchy. Her new stepsister, Isobel Fisher, is engaged to a wealthy island resident and introduces Miranda to Winthrop's customs. The island is divided between wealthy summer families and working-class Portuguese fishermen and domestic workers. Miranda finds herself drawn to Joseph Vargas, whose father tends the lighthouse. Joseph attends Brown University and shares a complex friendship with Isobel. As summer ends, a catastrophe shatters the island's peace and banishes Miranda for nearly two decades. In 1969, Miranda returns as a renowned Shakespearean actress. The Fisher family has declined, and Joseph has recently been released from prison after serving time for the murder of Miranda's stepfather eighteen years earlier. Miranda begins searching for justice for the man she once loved, determined to uncover the secrets binding together Winthrop Island's families.