Summary

In Book 1, Chapter 1, 65-year-old Bob Burgess lives in Crosby, Maine with his wife Margaret Estaver, a Unitarian minister. Bob was a lawyer in New York but moved back to Maine where he grew up “when he married Margaret” (5). Bob is close with his neighbors, including 90-year-old Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton. Lucy and her ex-husband William moved from New York to Crosby during the pandemic. She and Bob take weekly walks. One day, Olive tells Bob she has a story for Lucy and he puts them in touch.

Olive is skeptical of Lucy but wants to tell her a story because she is a writer. During Lucy’s visit, Olive tells her about her mother. Her mother fell in love with a man she did not end up marrying. Years later, she discovered that she and the former lover both named their daughters Olive...