Summary

The novel is narrated in first person present by the main character, Harriet. Chapters are labelled either “Happy Place,” “Dark Place,” “Unhappy Place,” “Not Quite Real Life,” or “Real Life.” Although all types of chapters are narrated in present tense, the “Real Life” and “Not Quite Real Life,” chapters take place in the narrative present while the rest take place in the past. In the end, the “Happy Place” and “Real Life” chapters converge into one. In “Chapter One: Happy Place,” Harriet explains that she met her two best friends—Sabrina and Cleo—when they were placed in the same dorm by chance at their college in Vermont. Harriet thought she would never be happier anywhere else, but then she started spending summers with her friends at Sabrina’s family’s cottage on the coast of Maine, which had become the favorite place...