The following version of the novel was used to create this study guide: Hoffman, Alice. The Invisible Hour. Atria Books, August 15, 2023. Kindle.

NOTE: Nathaniel Hawthorne was a real person who wrote The Scarlet Letter in 1850. In the novel, The Invisible Hour, he is a fictionalized character. For clarity in this guide, he is referred to as "Hawthorne" in historical context and "Nathaniel" in his fictional relationship with Mia.

In the fantasy novel The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman, Mia Jacob takes a magical journey through time to visit Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author of The Scarlet Letter, the novel that saved Mia’s life. The novel details the ways in which women’s rights have progressed in the past 200 years and the ways in which they have lagged behind. Hoffman also explores the special bonds between mothers and daughters, and celebrates the power of literature.

Ivy Jacob was still a teenager when she became pregnant by her boyfriend, Noah Brinley. Noah refused to admit the baby was his and told Ivy to do with it what she pleased. Ivy’s father slapped Ivy when she told him she was pregnant. Ivy overheard her parents talking about their plans to send her away to have the baby and then put it up for adoption. Ivy ran away because she wanted to keep her baby. She joined a commune where she was told that people were respected for who they were. The leader of the Community, Joel Davis, was besotted with Ivy and married her. Ivy learned too late that she had become a member of a cult. Members were punished for reading books, having any sort of ambition, or becoming pregnant out of wedlock.

When Mia, Ivy's baby, was only ten days old, Ivy realized she had made a mistake by joining the Community and marrying Joel. She wrote a letter to Mia, which she managed to get to Helen, a maid who worked in her childhood home, in case Mia ever came looking for information about her family.

Ivy died in a farming accident when Mia was 15 years old. Even though biological parents were not allowed to raise their children, Mia knew Ivy was her mother. The two had a special relationship in spite of the rules of the Community. Ivy encouraged Mia to visit the library and to read even though it was not allowed in the Community. After Ivy died, Mia decided that she did not want to live anymore. When she was in the town of Blackwell working the Community’s vegetable stand, Mia visited the library using the excuse that she needed the restroom. As she walked through the library, she could not help but pick up a book. The book she happened to pick up was inscribed to someone named Mia. Mia took the book with her to the river where she intended to drown herself. Instead, Mia began reading the book. It was so much like her own life that she was inspired to live. Soon after this experience, someone found the books Mia had hidden in the barn. The books were burned, and Mia was locked in the barn. Joel intended to brand her the following morning to remind her of her crime. Mia broke out of the barn and ran from the Community.

Mia called Sarah Mott, the librarian whom Mia had befriended. Mia asked Sarah if she could find her a safe place to live. Sarah, who disliked the Community, took Mia to her girlfriend’s house. Sarah and Constance became Mia’s family.

Soon after Mia escaped from the Community, Joel came looking for her at Constance’s house. He left when Constance threatened to call the police. Years later after Mia had graduated from college and was working at the New York Public Library, Joel came looking for her again. He said the government was trying to take his land from him and that Mia had the deed.

Meanwhile, Mia had been having fantasies about Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author of The Scarlet Letter, the novel Mia believed had saved her life. One day, Mia took her copy of The Scarlet Letter (the one inscribed to Mia) to Nathaniel’s grave where she was transported to 1837, when Nathaniel was a young man. Mia met Nathaniel, and the two had a romance for a week. Elizabeth, Nathaniel’s sister, warned Mia that if she stayed with Nathaniel she would risk changing his life and impacting his work. Mia recognized Elizabeth was being truthful and went back to her time period.

Three months later, Joel tracked Mia to New York. Sarah warned Mia she needed to stay somewhere other than her apartment to be safe. Mia believed the only place she would be safe from Joel was in Nathaniel’s time period. Mia returned to 1837. Elizabeth criticized Mia for returning, but Mia replied she believed that she could live on the fringes of Nathaniel’s life and not influence him. Elizabeth recognized that Mia was pregnant with Nathaniel’s child. She told Mia that Nathaniel would take responsibility for the baby, but that it would impact his life. Mia realized she was telling the truth when she opened her copy of The Scarlet Letter and saw that the pages were becoming blank.

When Mia met Nathaniel in Blackwell where he was fishing with his uncle, she realized that Joel had managed to come to 1837 with her. He stole her copy of The Scarlet Letter, a novel she needed to return to her time period. Since each had something that the other wanted, Joel suggested to Mia that they should make an even swap. Mia asked Joel for one day to spend with Nathaniel, and Joel agreed.

That day, Mia talked to Nathaniel and told him how much his novel had meant to her. She told him that she had to leave and that he would be happy in his life. When he woke the following morning, Nathaniel found that Mia had left him the letter that Ivy had written to Mia. When Nathaniel read it, he realized it would become the basis of the novel that he needed to write.

In the meantime, Mia contacted the police and told them they would find a thief in the barn near Hightop Mountain. She planted some items of value in the barn. Mia lured Joel into the barn by telling him the map, on which the deed to the property, was inside the barn. Once he went inside, Mia locked him in. As she waited for the police to come, she thought about how she planned to teach her daughter that sometimes walking away was the bravest thing a person could do.