The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Awad, Mona. All’s Well. Simon & Schuster, 2021.

The novel’s three parts and 31 chapters cover roughly a month and a half during the period of rehearsal leading up to the spring semester student Shakespeare production at the unnamed Massachusetts liberal arts college where the main action is set. Miranda Fitch is the 37-year-old protagonist, a former stage actor who for the last four years has been an assistant professor in the college’s woefully underfunded theater department, despite having lied on her resume and in her interview about the extent of her experience. Now, Miranda dreads facing her student actors for rehearsal of All’s Well That Ends Well, one of Shakespeare’s less-performed so-called problem plays, neither comedy nor tragedy and her choice for the spring production. The students, however, have been expecting to put on Macbeth with its blood and witches, and have organized a formal complaint against Miranda, led by her antagonist, the spoiled provocateur Briana Valentine, whose wealthy parents’ donations keep the theater program afloat.

One night after rehearsal, Miranda and her colleague and co-director Grace, an eccentric, self-assured Puritan descendant whom Miranda admires and seeks approval from, are eating and drinking at their favorite Scottish pub. The two had been close friends and confidantes but had a falling out a year earlier when Grace lovingly suggested that perhaps the phantom pains dogging Miranda for years might be a product of her imagination, insulting the defensive Miranda despite the reasonability of Grace’s concern. After Grace leaves early, Miranda decides to have a drink at the bar where she notices three strange-looking men dressed in matching dark suits, who she does not remember seeing there earlier. The middle-looking man resembles an unctuous salesman and begins speaking familiarly with Miranda, seeming to know everything about her pain and troubles, moving her to tears which she dries with the man’s red silk handkerchief.

One day soon after, Miranda is summoned to the Dean’s office to meet with the president and vice president and is given a mealy-mouthed ultimatum to make Briana and her family happy by agreeing to switch the production to Macbeth, in return for which the college will buy a new extension for the stage which Miranda had requested. In her despair, she returns to the Scottish pub where she meets the three strange men again, who begin to speak in incantory rhymes like the witches from Macbeth. They present Miranda with a glass full of a glowing yellow liquid they call the golden remedy, and immediately after drinking it she begins to feel relief in her lower body. One of the men touches her wrist, promising to show her a trick, and Miranda has a vision of the men onstage singing rousing Judy Garland music.

Miranda shows up for the next rehearsal to see the students already have copies of the script for Macbeth. She continues to feign nonchalant ignorance of the official decision against her in order to save face in front of the students and asks Briana to look over her copy of the script, which Briana refuses to hand over. In wresting the pages from Briana, Miranda grabs her wrist and holds on a bit too roughly, causing Briana to recoil in shock and drop the pages on the floor. As Briana’s boyfriend Trevor halfheartedly begins to pick up the papers from the floor, the dean makes his presence known standing in the doorway to announces the exciting news that the college has just received its largest cash gift ever, a donation to the theater department by three local businessmen and patrons of the arts. The gift, however, comes with the stipulation that the performance be of All’s Well That Ends Well.

At the next rehearsal, Miranda notices how much more compliant and attentive the students are, agreeing with everything she says and silently following directions, as well as noticing Briana’s absence. Afterwards, Ellie, a pale, shy, sensitive student and Miranda’s favorite, drops by Miranda’s office with a gift, a bag of homemade herbal bath salts on which Ellie has placed a magic restorative spell, which Ellie believes will help heal Miranda’s contorted body. Ellie also mentions that she has heard that Briana, who is never sick or absent, is home in bed feeling unwell. Miranda tells Ellie that as Briana’s understudy, she must prepare to assume the lead role of Helen in Briana’s absence, which Ellie feels bad about, but Miranda assures her that Briana will not be coming back. Rehearsals continue apace, and Miranda sees that the talented Ellie is an ideal Helen, as she relishes not having Briana to worry about and as her mood and physical state continue to improve.

One Saturday, Miranda is again summoned to the dean’s office, this time for an urgent meeting with Briana’s family concerning some bizarre allegations. When Briana arrives, Miranda sees how weak, pale and shrunken the once radiant Briana has become, as if Miranda’s ailments have been transferred to Briana just as Miranda is feeling more energized and focused than ever. Over the obvious discomfort of her parents and the dean, Briana accuses Miranda of witchcraft, claiming that a spell was cast on her that day in the theater. While nobody takes her wild-but-apparently-true charges seriously, ascribing them to Briana’s sickly state, Miranda plays the wise and gracious professor, welcoming Briana back to the cast in the role of the ailing King of France, cured by Helen at the end of the play. Both Briana and Ellie exceed Miranda’s hopes for her vision, and their performances on opening night leave the audience in tears, as well as proving transformative for the breakout star Briana, transformed by the experience into a kind and compassionate friend, miraculously healed of her affliction.