The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Moriarty, Liane. Apples Never Fall. Henry Holt and Co., 2021. Kindle Edition.

Joy Delaney, the wife of Stan Delaney and the mother of Brooke, Amy, Logan, and Troy, disappears on Valentine’s Day. Prior to her disappearance, she sends a text to her children saying that she is going to be off grid for a while. The remainder of the text that follows does not make sense. When she has not returned after a few days and no one has heard from her, Logan and Amy file a missing person report. After the police talk to Stan, the lead detective in charge of the case launches a criminal investigation because she thinks that Stan is lying.

As more information is gathered, the case build a case against Stan. He has scratches on his face. It seems as if Joy did not leave any notification for him that she was leaving and where she was going. He and Joy had argued before she disappeared on Valentine’s Day. Additionally, a mysterious woman named Savannah had recently been living in the house with the the couple. The woman, named Savannah, was young and there is a question as to whether Stan had an affair with her when Joy was in the hospital and Stan and Savannah were alone in the house. The investigators also found a t-shirt that belongs to Joy that has blood on it and see a video of Stan taking something heavy out of the house and putting it in the trunk of his car. He also had his car detailed following Joy's disappearance.

The case divides the children. Brooke decides that she is going to support Stan no matter what and gets a criminal lawyer for him. Amy and Logan go back and forth other as to whether or not that they think he is innocent. Troy, initially doubtful about going to the police, stops talking to Brooke because she supports Stan. The case also divides the community. Some people withhold judgement, while others are eager to present evidence against Stan.

The police are preparing to arrest Stan when evidence appears that points to the possibility that Joy is alive and could be with Savannah. Amy's boyfriend realizes that Joy's text said that she was going to a charity tennis event as a sponsor. The neighbor's daughter, who is currently out of the country, gave Joy a ride when she was leaving on Valentine's day. The detectives do not know these things, but they do know that a call made to the house from the number of a plastic surgeon could have been from Savannah. The lead detective still wants to arrest Stan.

They are in the process of doing that when Joy returns. It turns out that she had gone away voluntarily to attend the charity event with Savannah. When Savannah called her, she was trying to figure out what to do with herself. She and Stan had just had an argument. As Stan was ready to leave the house, as he always did when he was upset, Joy scratched his face by accident as she tried to detain him. She accidentally knocked her phone off the table after texting her children, and it fell under the bed. She looked for it but decided to leave it when she could not find it. She left a note for Stan on the refrigerator, but it slid off and their dog, who eats paper, ate it.

Stan had removed the carpet from the house. This is what the detectives saw him putting in his car. He had cleaned the car because Joy had complained that it smelled like sour milk after she spilled a milkshake in it. He did these things to please her when she returned.

During her stay with Savannah, Joy learned that the girl is devious. She already knew that Savannah is the younger sister of one of Stan's former students. She also knows that Savannah came to get revenge because she blamed them for her problems. Still Joy was sympathetic. However, when Savannah tells Joy how she tried to ruin her children and her marriage, Joy distances herself from her and is happy to return home.

The experience brings the Delaney family together, and they thrive in spite of the presence of a pandemic. Savannah, on the other hand, still suffers from her past and does not know how to get better. As the narrative ends, she is going to her childhood home to see what has happened to her mother, whom she had locked in a room a few months before now. She left her mother with some food that would have to be rationed. Savannah did this as revenge for when her mother had made her ration food when she was a young girl with hopes of becoming a famous ballerina.