The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Hilderbrand, Elin. The Hotel Nantucket. Little, Brown and Company, 2022.

London-based billionaire Xavier Darling buys the abandoned Hotel Nantucket. He hires Lizbet Heaton to renovate it and act as the hotel manager. Lizbet recently broke up with her boyfriend of fifteen years, JJ, after he cheated on her. She and JJ ran a restaurant called the Deck together. Xavier is determined to receive a five-star review from a hotel blogger called Shelly Carpenter.

The hotel has a ghost, Grace Hadley. Grace died in a fire in 1922. She was a maid in the hotel and the owner’s lover. Grace is convinced that the owner’s wife set the fire on purpose. Grace wants the world to discover the truth.

Lizbet hires her staff. Edie and Alessandra are the front desk employees. Zeke, Adam, and Raoul are the bellmen. Zeke’s aunt Magda is the housekeeper. Magda hires Chad and Bibi as maids. Xavier hires a top chef, Mario Subiaco, to run the hotel’s Blue Bar. Xavier tells the staff via email that he will be giving out weekly $1000 cash prizes based on which employee receives the best reviews.

On the hotel’s opening day, JJ shows up to propose to Lizbet. She is saved by Mario, who asks JJ to leave Lizbet alone. Edie handles the hotel’s first guest, Kimber Marsh, who can only pay in cash. Kimber has a dog and two children, Wanda and Louie. Lizbet is annoyed with Edie for letting the guest pay in cash.

Lizbet calls a staff meeting to try to encourage bonding. They all have secrets they are unwilling to share. Chad’s is that something happened with his friend Paddy which he feels incredibly guilty about. Chad’s family is wealthy, but Chad wants to work as a maid to atone for his past. Edie’s secret is that her ex, Graydon, is blackmailing her with their sex tape. Alessandra’s is that she, until recently, was living with a married man named Michael Bick. Alessandra blackmailed him by taking pictures in his home and leaving clues to indicate that a woman was there. Michael’s wife, Heidi, finds the clues and suspects that her neighbor and best friend, Lyric, is the woman in question. Alessandra moves in with Adam and Raoul.

Exhausted from working night shifts, Lizbet hires a middle-aged man named Richie to work as the night auditor. He strikes up a friendship—and then a romance—with Kimber, who suffers from insomnia. Grace is suspicious of the two of them, whom she feels are hiding things. Grace haunts a group of women for flirting excessively with Zeke. Meanwhile, Wanda uncovers the truth behind Grace’s death and publishes an article about it. Alessandra wins several weekly cash prizes by sleeping with the hotel’s guests.

Lizbet has her first date with Mario at the Deck. Christina serves them: the woman JJ cheated on Lizbet with. They leave the restaurant promptly to go to Mario’s cottage, where he cooks for them. They have sex and start seeing each other regularly.

Alessandra’s friend from high school, Duffy, checks into the hotel one day. Alessandra had an affair with Duffy’s dad. Sensing Alessandra’s discomfort around the woman, Edie helps Alessandra avoid Duffy. Alessandra seduces a guest named Dr. Romano but feels emotionally numb afterwards. Meanwhile, Edie develops a crush on Zeke.

Chad enjoys working alongside Bibi, although she stresses him out by snooping through guests’ things. One afternoon, Chad’s father, Paul, arrives on Nantucket. Paul explains that he is handling the lawsuit with Paddy and demands that Chad quit his job. Chad refuses.

The buzz surrounding Grace attracts guests. Grace starts using her powers for good, helping improve the guests’ experiences in subtle ways. Kimber and Richie come clean about their relationship to Lizbet, who approves. Lizbet suspects Mario is cheating on her with Yolanda, the hotel’s yoga instructor. When she asks him if he is seeing other people, he insists that he is not. Still, she ends things with him.

One night, Alessandra is assaulted by one of the guests she seduces. Grace helps her fight him off. Alessandra flees the hotel, crying.

A Shelly Carpenter impersonator stays at the hotel, fooling everyone. She even claims someone stole her Gucci belt. Assuming that Bibi is the thief, Chad steals his mother’s Gucci belt and leaves it in the laundry room, where Magda finds it. He thinks he is saving Bibi, but she is offended by his assumption that she would steal.

One day while in the break room, Edie tells Alessandra of her troubles. Pretending to be a sheriff, Alessandra calls Edie’s ex and demands he stop blackmailing her. Lizbet meets JJ at their old favorite bar. He begs her to come back to him. She spots Yolanda holding hands with another woman and realizes Yolanda is gay. Lizbet leaves the bar and heads to Mario’s, where they make up.

Xavier arrives at the hotel. He leaves prematurely when Magda turns down his proposal. He and Magda have known each other for thirty years. She used to work on his cruise ship.

Alessandra asks for more money from Michael Bick, earning her a visit from his wife, Heidi. Only Edie is there when Heidi arrives. After Heidi leaves, Edie spots an envelope left to her by Alessandra. It contains all the cash Alessandra won from the weekly prizes. Edie rushes to Adam and Raoul’s place. She arrives while they are packing up Alessandra’s possessions. Edie manages to convince Alessandra not to leave Nantucket just yet.

One evening, Magda asks Chad to get drinks. She wants to know about his recent trauma. He explains that he threw a party that got out of control. He accidentally blinded a boy named Paddy by hitting him in the eye with a champagne cork. The house caught fire. Chad’s dog died. Magda encourages him to let go. Shortly after, Xavier puts the hotel up for sale. To Chad’s surprise, Magda and Paul form a partnership to buy it. Richie gets arrested for wire fraud.

Charlene, a retirement home employee, approaches Edie at work one day to deliver some news. One of Charlene’s patients, Mint Benedict, passed away. Charlene explains that Mint was the son of Jackson and Dahlia Benedict, who owned the hotel during Grace’s time. Charlene passes on some family diaries to Edie.

Edie reads out Jackson Benedict’s diary to the rest of the staff. Jackson confessed to being in love with Grace. Jackson knew his wife had started the fire deliberately and was devasted he could not save Grace. Grace feels free at last. She chooses to remain at the hotel.