The following version of the novel was used to create this study guide: Hyde, Catherine Ryan. Stay. Lake Union Publishing, December 3, 2019. Kindle.

In the coming of age novel Stay by Catherine Ryan Hyde, the narrator Lucas Painter describes how a single incident changed the trajectory of his entire life. As a fifty-year-old, Lucas looks back on the summer of 1969 when he met Zoe Dinsmore and saved her life after she attempted to die by suicide. Zoe, in turn, became a parent figure and counselor to Lucas, his brother, Roy, and his friend Connor. The four forged a friendship based on the idea that it did not matter what happened in a person’s past, there was always hope for the future.

When Lucas began running with two dogs he met in the woods, he did not know what a huge impact that small act would come to have on his life. One morning, he woke up early and could not go back to sleep. He decided to go for his run early. Lucas was surprised to find the dogs “fretting” (25) around the cabin where they lived. Their owner, Zoe, appeared to be asleep inside, but Lucas could not wake her. He called the sheriff’s department to check on her. Lucas later learned Zoe was in a coma as a result of a drug overdose. Zoe recovered only because Lucas found her.

Lucas learned that Zoe lived as an outcast from society because two children had died when the bus she was driving crashed. The wreck was ruled an accident and Zoe was not charged, but the people blamed Zoe anyway. Because of the way Zoe had been treated in the past, she was snarky and hateful when Lucas visited to check on her and see if she needed any supplies. She believed he wanted to question her about the wreck, but he convinced her that he was worried about her welfare.

Lucas continued to visit Zoe even though she warned him that he had no impact on whether she decided to go on living. He asked her advice on dealing with his friend, Connor, who was deeply depressed, as well as advice on life issues, like dating, because his parents were too busy fighting with each other to be involved in his life. He credited her for giving him information about life that no one had ever given him before and begged her to stay because he needed her. As Lucas became more concerned about Connor, he decided to introduce Connor to Zoe. Zoe argued it was a bad idea because she was depressed and suicidal, but Connor later acknowledged that it was Zoe who made him realize he needed to go on living because he might miss out on something nice.

Lucas visited Zoe for comfort and advice when his brother returned home from the Vietnam War. Lucas could tell by his parents’ reaction that they were angry with Roy, but he did not understand why. Zoe gently helped Lucas understand that Roy’s gunshot wound to the foot was probably self-inflicted. Lucas also went to Zoe for help when he learned his brother was addicted to drugs and needed to attend a support group. Meanwhile, Lucas found a gun in Connor’s room and realized how serious Connor had been about suicide. Connor assured Lucas that he was no longer considering death.

Zoe, who had attended NA meetings before she relapsed, joined a meeting to which Lucas had taken Roy. She told the group how easy it was to slip back into old habits. She also told Roy she wanted to hear his story, making him talk for the first time since he had been attending meetings. Roy told the story of how he had become addicted to heroin during the war because it helped him deal with the stress. He believed it was also because of the heroin that he did not realize how serious an injury he would cause or how obvious it would be the injury was self-inflicted when he shot himself in the foot. A few days later, Roy asked Zoe to be his sponsor for NA. He reasoned that if she could get clean even though she was dealing with something she would regret her entire life, that there was hope for him.

The conclusion of the novel is told in 2019, the day of Connor’s funeral. Lucas has been telling the story to Harris, one of Connor’s seven grandchildren. Roy has been clean of drugs for fifty years and walks with only a slight limp as a result of his injury. Lucas refused to be drafted to go to Vietnam when his time came. He instead served two years in jail. He felt justified by his choice because it was the price any man who did not want to go to war could have paid. Connor was deferred from the draft because he was the sole caretaker for his mother, who had suffered a breakdown. Roy told Lucas he was not sure where they would all have been, however, if Lucas had not taken up his habit of running with a stranger’s dogs.