The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Nesbit, TaraShea. Beheld. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020. Kindle.

The novel switches narrator and tense constantly throughout the novel. Alice Bradford and Eleanor Billington have the most chapters. They narrate in the first-person, but they both switch from past to present tense at various times in the novel. John Billington and Newcomen both have many chapters in the novel, and they both remain consistently in third-person past. Dorothy has a few chapters that are narrated in the first-person using both past and present tense. There are two omniscient chapters that do not follow any single character, and one entry from John Winthrop’s diary is presented in a chapter. All of these oscillations in narrator and tense are a bit jarring, however the story told through them is a simple and seamless one.

The novel is broken up into three different sections. In Part One, Alice introduces herself as the wife of the Plymouth governor, William Bradford. In 1630, a new ship, The Gifte, bringing new colonists and investors appeared on the horizon. Alice had grown up in Holland with her best friend Dorothy. Dorothy had married William and moved to Plymouth with him, leaving her son behind in Holland. She died falling from the Mayflower after the ship had docked, however. William had written to Alice and asked her to join him as his wife. She agreed, though she felt conflicted about betraying Dorothy. The new ship was also bringing Dorothy’s son, and Alice was anxious to greet the boy. John Billington had come over on the Mayflower with William Bradford. He had agreed to seven years of indentured servitude in exchange for four parcels of land. However, after he completed his seven years, William Bradford and his hired soldier, Standish, had given him three parcels. They treated him like he was still a servant, and he resented them. He wanted to move away because he hated the Puritans and their hypocritical ways, but his son, Francis, had died and was buried in Plymouth and he did not want to leave him. Francis had been the first one to see a lake nearby, so it was named Billington Sea. John Billington was determined to buy the land with the lake on it to honor his son. He had written a letter of complaint to the investors, telling them that William Bradford was a horrible governor. William Bradford had found out about the letter and was nervous because the inspectors had taken it so seriously that they were sending people to check up on him and the colony. He did not want Billington meeting with them or talking to them, so he asked his wife and Standish to tell Billington’s wife, Eleanor, to make sure her husband was not at the dinner they were having at the meetinghouse. The boat arrived and a man named Newcomen got off the boat and went into town, excited to start working on the land he had purchased so he could bring his fiancé to live with him. He met with Standish, who gave him a map and told him his land was right next to Billington’s land. Billington made an illegal trade with the Natives to get the last of the money he needed to purchase his rightful land. He went to Standish and asked to buy his land, but Standish said he had already given that land to Newcomen. Billington approached Newcomen and told him to get off his land, but Newcomen was adamant that it was his land.

In Part Two, Newcomen met with Standish and asked for a different parcel of land, but Standish said no. Alice greeted her stepson and was nervous when Thomas Weston, the financial backer who had originally arranged the Puritan’s journey on the Mayflower, arrived. Alice’s stepson asked her if his mother had really fallen from the ship, and she did not know what to tell him since she was unsure of what had happened. Eleanor and her husband both decided not to go to the dinner at the meetinghouse. Eleanor cooked her husband dinner, but he said he had a craving for deer and went out with his rifle. Billington got into an argument with Thomas Weston, who implied Billington should be grateful for the land he had. Billington left and found Newcomen, who was chopping down a tree on the disputed land. Billington shot him in the back and felt horrible about doing so. He refused to hide his crime and was arrested by Standish. Billington said it was not his fault and that Standish and the governor had pushed him to do it because they stole his land. He assumed he would be banished and that the governor would cover up the murder so that others would not be afraid of moving to Plymouth in the future. However, at the trial Billington was convicted and sentenced to hang. Eleanor approached Alice and asked for a pardon, but Alice said she could not change anything. Eleanor revealed that Dorothy had killed herself, and threatened to tell everyone. This was a scandalous revelation and meant that all of Dorothy’s property should have reverted to the king because she had committed the murder of herself and owed a penalty that her husband should have paid. John Billington was hanged at the gallows and Eleanor’s land was taken away from her. When Alice attempted to intervene and save Eleanor’s land, her husband slapped her. Several of the new people who had intended to join the Plymouth community got back onto the boat and returned to London.

In Part Three, Eleanor was sexually assaulted by a church deacon. When she attempted to tell the truth about what had happened, she was whipped in the streets naked. Her son refused to leave her and was accused of a number of small crimes. Alice watched her husband die of old age but lived to be an old woman with many grandchildren. She was sad that Plymouth had never become what the Puritans intended it to be.