Leaving Time Summary
Jodi Picoult

Leaving Time Overview

(Please note this overview and some sections of the guide contain spoilers for a major plot twist.) Thirteen-year-old Jenna Metcalf wants to find her mother, Alice Metcalf, who disappeared ten years prior from the New England Elephant Sanctuary on the same day a caregiver was killed on the grounds of that sanctuary. The novel “Leaving Time” by Jodi Picoult details Jenna’s search as she elicits the help of psychic Serenity Jones and investigator Virgil Stanhope. Through various plot twists, it is revealed that it was not Jenna’s mother who was missing, but Jenna. Themes in the novel include the plight of elephants, the struggle with grief and abandonment, and the powerful hold that self-doubt can have on a person.